I have bred this fish several times and it is my favourite. The first thing I should say is that I have found fluctuations in pH, unless very gradual, cause more harm than good and are not necessary for breeding successfuly. My pH is 8 and none of my fish have had problems breeding. Obviously though, both fish need to be in good condition, though not necessarily fully grown, to breed easily. My suggestiong is that you seperate the pair for a week or two and spend this time conditioning them with live foods and possibly raise the temperature to around 80 deg F at this time too. Then you'll want to put the pair in a small bare tank (10 gallon works fine) with a sponge filter and some kind of floating cover - plants work best, I like duckweed because it's so hardy, but even a plastic box lid works for this. Providing a ceramic pot or similar ornament for the female to hide in until she is taken out is sometimes useful - take it out later though as it will only get in the way. One of the most essential things you will need is a tight-fitting lid, prefferably with a weak light. It helps to lower the water level and keep the sponge filter either completely turned off or powered by a very gentle pump. Once the nest is built and eggs laid, you should remove the female and then wait for the fry to become free-swimming before taking out the male. I don't usualy feed the male while he is guarding the nest and most won't eat anyway so you'd just be polluting the water. Once the fry are clearly free-swimming, you should remove the male as well and start feeding the fry on very tiny foods. They usualy require infusoria at this stage which you can grow in a jar on your window sill or using commercial liquid foods for egg layers. Many fry cannot eat even the smallest microworms at this stage but later, microworms are the best food. Baby brine shrimp work too but they have been associated with swim bladder problems which lead to death if the shells are swallowed by the developing fry. At about a week, you can turn on the sponge filter to full power and it will soon be time to fill the tank completely. Having a low water level was useful for the male to build his nest and so the fry can find food easily but it is eventualy necessary to increase the volume in order to keep water quality at it's best. Once the fry are large enough, it helps to introduce them to commercial flake foods so they become accustomed to it and don't need to be trained on to it later. At around half an inch, if you have many fry, you'll want to move them to a larger grow-out tank until they reach at least an inch - at which stage you can introduce them to a community tank or whatever you have planned.
The main problem with raising gourami fry is their minute size which means they need to be fed near-microscopic foods at first. If you have this ready and perform water changes (use a white bucket so you can see any fry you suck up an can put them back - you'll probably require a lot of patience and a glass to do this though - however, you won't need to do water changes for a while because the fry are so tiny - provided you don't feed very messy foods that is (such as egg yolk)
) to keep water quality good, the fry should thrive and are actualy quite easy to raise.
Sexing them has already been described but I'll add that the females look deeper-bodied and wider when viewed from above than the more stream-lined males and the males have pointy, longer unpaired fins and lace-like edges to their anal fin in particular. The color in healthy individuals, however, is the most obvious difference.
Good luck with your fish!
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