T. Pumilus Breeding, Love Is In The Water

[lljdma06]

I got my T. pumilus, not too long ago really, and lo and behold, they are breeding right in front of me. I saw several embraces. Very cool. In the camera phone it comes out like a blob, sorry. It's really very, very cool to observe. The male has a nest right under a hygrophilia leaf. They embrace, an egg pops out, and he then catches it and he secures it under the leaf. They then repeat the process. He spends some time taking eggs and rearranging them in the nest. They squabble a little, but nothing violent. One bridget rasbora is watching and seems very interested. I suspect I know where the eggs will end up Now, I know that the clicking and chirping I was hearing wasn't in my mind.

I have a trio, and they were squabbling a little but the odd man/woman out is currently being ignored. I'm debating as to whether or not to move the third party to my 15g. But that tank already has a gouramis species (honey gouramis) and I don't think the situation would be better for the fish. It's fine, it just doesn't have free reign in the tank like it used to. I don't intend on raising fry, so the nest will probably be destroyed since I have to prune that particular Hygro anyways. I have a picture. It really sucks, sorry, the fish are in the middle left corner. The grayish blob.

Any advice on what to do with the odd man/woman out? I don't think I can return it anymore, perhaps for store credit, but I don't want to cause undo stress to the fish by netting it and taking it to the LFS. It's not damaged or hurt. What's funny is that it's quite a bit larger than the pair. It is nearly 2 inches long, while the others are about 1.25" long.

So cool that they're breeding. I wasn't even trying! It makes me feel good that I'm providing the right environment for

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Awwww lovely. And if there's no aggression towards the other one leave it. It only becomes an issue when they start bullying or fighting/chasing.
Hugs,
P.

 

[sylvia]

Just so you know, if you do find there's a lot of aggression, sparklers and honeys will tend to ignore each other so moving the pumilus to the honey tank shouldn't pose any issues. But I agree that, as long as you don't actualy have excessive aggression, there's no reason to mvoe it out Congrats on the spawning

 

[lljdma06]

Just so you know, if you do find there's a lot of aggression, sparklers and honeys will tend to ignore each other so moving the pumilus to the honey tank shouldn't pose any issues. But I agree that, as long as you don't actualy have excessive aggression, there's no reason to mvoe it out Congrats on the spawning

Now that is good to know. Good, because I have a 36 gallon planted aquarium in Miami, that will provide an excellent temporary home for all of my fish until I can get smaller tanks set up. I was a little scared, because I had wanted to take my fish home with me, since I've transported bettas by plane and they did awesome.

I think they ate the eggs, because I don't see him guardiing the nest anymore and they are all kind of hanging out now as if nothing had happened.

 

[lljdma06]

A sad update. When I first got my T. pumilus, the largest one got stuck behind my CO2 difusion ladder. That time I was able to remove him/her very easily.

When I woke up this morning, I found the same pumilus dead, stuck in the CO2 difusion ladder. He must of gotten stuck. Funny, the little ones and my bridget rasboras never get stuck back there. It's only been that fish.



The other two are fine. I am really surprised, there wasn't that much agression during the breeding and they were all fine and swimming together before I went to bed. They ate the eggs yesterday. Little piggys, didn't even give the fry a fighting chance. I'm contemplating getting a few more and sticking with the smaller fish, like the ones that are still alive. Based on what was said to me before, I figure I can house extra males with the honey gouramis. My 15g is a deeper tank and there is only 1 honey male to compete with for space.