Dwarf gouramies (
colisa lalia) are not the best egg-laying fish to start with
They are, themselves fragile fish that easily get stressed and die. They are also extremely highly prone to disease - just browse through all the dwarf posts - the majority are about illness - usualy the fish dies. Also, finding females can often be difficult as, with only the males being brightly colored, they are rarely stocked by money-mad LFSs
Because of the limmited tank space, the only alternative GOURAMI I could suggest is the honey (
colisa chuna/sota). These are just a tad smaller than the dwarf (growing to a max. of 1.5") and look quite similar. Like the dwarf, there are different color morphs but, unlike the dwarf, there's only a handful of colors. I would suggest going for the 'wild' type as these are generaly the hardiest (least inbred) and are also easier to sex than some of the 'fancy' colors. Regardless, however, they are certainly less prone to 'sudden death' than dwarfs are...
http
/www27.brinkster.com/janbuk/Vissen/Colisa_chuna.html
Here's a pair. Note that these two are in breeding condition and mature. When younger, both sexes look pretty much like the female and picking them out can be tricky. You'll need to pick out a male and two females, idealy. You may be able to achieve this if you pick out the fish with the longest fins and a couple of fish with the shortest (though make shure they aren't short because of damage!).
Once mature, males develop longer dorsal and anal fins and the females appear mroe rounded. When in good condition, males also become a lot brighter and develop that dark ventral color that appears black in the pic (it ranges from black to a dark blu-ish shade
).
Just to clarify a point here, you need to obtain a trio - not a pair. Ultimately, it'll be a pair that spawns, but a trio is advised for two reasons -
one so, if you do mess up with the sexes, you may just get lucky with the extra fish and,
two, if you actualy do get the trio (2 females, 1 male) as planned, when the male starts chasing 'his' girls around, the attention will be split between the two so neither will get overly-stressed. Note that
two is more important than
one so, if you do get the sexes wrong, it would actualy be better to return the 'mistake' fish and replace it with one that's the right sex.
At this point I should say that breeding honeys is pretty much the same as breeding dwarfs so, if you do end up going for dwarfs (though, like I said, I wouldn't reccomend this route), you can follow the same procedure (minus the tank size requirements).
Breeding them requires that you have two tanks - one for the fry, one for the adults. The 10 gallon alone is fine for spawning and raising the fry
to an extent - but have you considered what you'll do once they've grown a bit? Granted, you are unlikely to get more than 8 or so fry fully grown the first time round - but a 10 gallon is still a small space to keep these in once they've reached a substantial size.
And where will you be keeping the adults when they're not spawning/raising fry? For a trio of honeys, you need a 10 gallon minnimum. If you choose dwarfs, a 15 minnimum is reccomended but larger would be better. You
could keep these in a peaceful community but, for an ideal setup, they should be housed alone (except for a bunch of peaceful schooling fish such as pygmy cories or spotted rasbora to encourage them to come out and feel safe and, of course, you'll be wanting to have lots and lots of plants). Plants that float or are tall are especialy important. To get your gouramies in breeding condition, they need to feel comfortable. While clean water is the main must, lots of places to hide, a gentle flow of water that doesn't disturb the surface too much and rich foods are important.
When you're actively conditioning them, you can go all sorts of different routes. Assuming all you have is the 10 gallon breeding tank and the 'main' tank for the adults, what you'll want to start off by doing is setting up the breeding tank and fishless cycling it.
To do this, place the sponge filter you'll be using in your main tank for a couple of weeks to a month. Then transfer it to your fully set up breeder tank (with heater, lights, styrofoam cup cut lengthways and filled with
DECHLORINATED water etc). Up until you actualy introduce fish into this tank, you need, now, to add pinches of fish food every other day. Just before you add fish, do a complete water change (again with
dechlorinated water). Do NOT wash the sponge filter with tap water - though you can use the old tank water to rinse it out if you feel its particularly clogged up (though it shouldn't realy be
).
To your breeding tank, also add a ceramic pot or similar, simple, non-messy ornament. This is going to act as your fish' hiding place. You can also use a plastic plant or whatever if you feel the fish isn't settling in with just a pot to hide in. It helps to have three sides of the tank covered with something so the fish don't get startled easily and feel safer.
Feed your gouramies with foods such as live/frozen bloodworm, brine shrimp and, if you like, daphnia and blackworm. Also supplement their diet with an occasional crushed pea or vegetable-based flake - just once a week or so should be adequate. Do this for about a week. Then start increasing the tank's temperature gradualy over a day. It is particularly important to do this slowly if you have dwarfs as they can be extremely sensitive to such fluctuations. All the while, continue the feeding regime. The temp. change should be from a 'norm' of about 76 deg F to 80 deg. F.
Having increased the temperature, you may or may not see a marked difference in behaviour (or perhaps you already have after the feeding) and in color. If the male has colored up and is more actively persuing his females and, provided the females are quite plump, you can now try transfering a pair to the breeding tank. Leave the third fish.
If not, and they are still not looking particularly into spawning, first try raising the temp. a degree or two more. If you still see no change, move the male fish to your 10 gallon breeding tank (which should also have had its temp. raised BTW). Lower the temp. back to 80 deg F in both tanks first (82 is ok for the gouramies but any tankmates will not realy appreciate it and its important both tanks are at the same temp. so you don't shock any fish when you transfer them from one to the other). Continue feeding the females and male with the live/frozen foods seperately for a week or so. Then put the plumper female (or at least the one that appears in better condition, brighter etc) in with the male. If this doesn't trigger a response after a day or so, you can still try lower the water level but its more likely the fish simply need some more time to mature so you should put everyone back and lower the temp. (gradualy) again and let them resume normal life for a while
.
Anyway, assuming you've got a pair in the tank that look ready to spawn, leave them to it. The male should use the ceramic pot as a place to put his nest. This is my favourite part - if you're lucky, you'll get to see them spawn. The male will attempt to entice the female under his nest and he'll then fold his body around her to get her to release the eggs which he'll then fertilise. You'll also see him picking up any that fall (which is why good lighting and a bare tank bottom are useful) and placing them in teh nest and he may blow some more bubbles/repair his nest etc. They may repeat this several times. Once the female's done laying eggs, her job is done. Remove her into the 'main' tank to recuperate.
The male gourami will guard his nest closely for the next day or two while the eggs hatch and the fry become free-swimming. During this period, its best to leave him alone and not even feed him (this'll keep the water cleaner for one). You'll see him picking up fallen eggs/fry and cleaning the eggs regularly. Once he can no longer realy keep up with the fry (should be on the second or third day depending on just how quickly the eggs hatched) and they are free-swimming, its time to take him out too. Return him to his females.
Now you need to concentrate on raising these fry! Remove any extra decorations/the polystyrene cup you have in the tank. Perhaps leave just a small ceramic pot. This'll make it easier for your fry to find their food and allow the light to shine through so they can see it better (which is also why the lighting is important). What I should have said at the beginning is that very young honeys (or dwarfs) can't usualy handle baby brine shrimp, and most can't even eat microworm. They are so incredibly tiny. In order to increase your chances of raising a good number this first time round, it would be a good idea to set up an infusoria culture earlier on, ready for when the fry hatch. I'll find you a link for methods of doing this in a minute... Alternatively, you can use the commercialy available liquid foods for egg layers but I stand by infusoria as being a more reliable choice for the youngest fry. Don't over-feed. They only require a tiny bit. Little and often is the way to go.
Within a week all fry should be able to handle microworm and baby brine shrimp. This is also the point at which you should fill the tank back up to the top, if you had lowered the water level earlier to trigger spawning. You could also feed the 'next level' liquid foods available for egg-layers at LFSs or you can use egg yolk - but both of these are messier than the live foods mentioned.
...Which actualy raises an important point. To maximise growth and the number of fry that survive, you may decide to feed more than 3 times a day (IMO that is the minnimum - keep in mind that gourami fry can be canibalistic if hungry). This is obviously going to make a mess - even with the sponge filter running. So how are you going to do water changes? Well, buy yourself a
white bucket
Syphon the water out as usual, then, take a look in the bucket and retrieve any fry you sucked up. This is time consuming but I have yet to find a better way of doing this
As long as the bucket is a light color, you should be able to see the fry. Also, note that when you are replacing the water, it is essential that you are using
dechlorinated water and that its at the same temp. as the breeding tank. This is realy important for younger fry which can be incredibly sensitive to differences in temperature.
We're nearing the end now (I know this is long
)... Once you're fry are a little older and eating flake food, you're going to have to start thinking about 'further accomodation'
If you've had a relatively successful spawn, you could have well over 50 fry cramped up in a 10 gallon... However, that's unlikely to be the case. You're more likely to have a handful (5-8 ). But they will still need homes and, remember that, sooner than you expect, the males will be mature and sparring with each other and the females will be fleeing from the persuing males. In crowded conditions, this kind of thing
could end up nasty. Its more of a problem with dwarfs, IMO, but it realy does depend. You may have to add some extra hiding places as they grow and start looking, either for a bigger tank, or an LFS that's happy to take on some honey or dwarf gouramies.
Live food culturing (from the betta section).
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=54941 Note that vinegar eels can also be fed to fry - but, again, not the youngest ones.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=55632 - general live food info (check out the FAQ in this forum! Lots of useful info is waiting right here.)
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=58218 - extremely useful if you've never hatched BBS before
http/davidcecere.pipidae.org/infusoria.htm - the infusoria bit is at the bottom and explains exactly how to start a culture up
Anyway, I think that's everything. Going back to one of the first things I said, gouramies are not the best egg-layer to begin on. A much easier choice would be something such as cories or zebra/leopard danios - mainly because all this moving of fish back and forth and feeding minute fry is avoided. If you want to try out gouramies, go right ahead, but don't be too dissapointed if you have to repeat the process several times and, I know I wrote a lot here but, realy, I've made it sound a lot more complicated than it is
Do still search the forums! The betta forum also has plenty of info related to raising gourami fry (bettas
are gouramies after all!) and most of the common gouramies (three-spots, pearls, dwarfs, honeys, bandeds, thick-lipped etc) are similar to spawn and raise. Even sparkler and croaker or paradisefish info is very similar.
