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I have breeding gourai's. All week the male has been making bubble nests and today I saw them breeding. I wanted to know if anyone has any information on this subject. when to the eggs hatch, how can you tell if there are even eggs( when they wrap around each other you can't see whats happening), how to take care of young...etc.
If they do have young they will be an interesting hybrid. Flame Gourami male+ standard striped female

any feedback would help.

-Vincent

hi vincent,
im trying the same at the moment. The difference is that i attempting to breed the platinum gouramis(a color morph of opaline gouramis).
Well, in case of dwarf gouramis, the eggs are very small. Just the size of bubbles they use to make the nest. And they are alomost transparent (unless they are infertile and fungus takes over, then they woud turn white), usually not visible with naked eyes. If they have spawned and u look a bit closely in the middle of the nest, u may observe some yellow coloration. These are the eggs.
The eggs hatch in about 36 hours. Another way of making sure they have spawned is watching the behavior of the male towards the female.If its no more friendly and she's being chased, chances are high they have already spawned. Remove the female.
The fry remain in larvae state for around 4~5 days. They'll float. Their size (around one tenth of a guppy fry) make them hard to see ( and to raise as well). During this duration they'll feed on the yolk sack. As a safety measure, remove the male after four days.
You should get one fourth Flame and 3 fouths stripped if the parents were true breeds (or vise versa ) well, thats all i know about genetics

Anyway, best of luck with the fry. Do post some pics so that i might get some idea about the nest too

Haroon

Today I came home to a destroyed bubble nest
I don't know what happened but I hope they try to breed again soon.

-Vincent

There might still be eggs/fry there, if some part of the nest is still intact!
Are they breeding in the community tank? Separate them if possible. Im using a 15g filled upto 7/8 inches and only a corner air driven filter.
You should be expecting them to breed again in around 10 days if they are fed well. Best of luck next time!

yeah their breeding in a community tank and I don't have another tank to put them in.
I can't get another tank.


-Vincent

Is it the Dwarf Gouramis or the Blue Gouramis that are breeding? (I checked your profile to see which you had )

If it's your Dwarf Gouramis, first note I have to make is that the male should be watched closely. Some male Dwarf Gouramis can be pretty rough with the females.

If it's your Blue Gouramis, chances are they need more space. Blue Gouramis make LARGE bubble nests.

As for spotting the eggs, well, you'll need VERY sharp eyes to do this! Even if you take a top-quality high-resolution photograph of the bubble nest with a top spec digital SLR and zoom in on the nest with the closest focus possible, you'll still have trouble differentiating the eggs visually from the bubbles.

During the typical Labyrinth Fish spawning embrace, the male usually catches the eggs before they fall very far from the female's genital papilla. Male Labyrinth Fishes are usually superbly accomplished at the task. This is one reason why you don't see the eggs. When they add the eggs to the nest, the eggs are frequently encased in another mucus bubble prior to being inserted in the nest. You are, after all, bearing witness to an act that these fishes have had something like 50 million years to perfect, so if you don't see the eggs, you shouldn't be surprised - they've spent a LONG time over the course of evolutionary history perfecting the business of keeping the eggs hidden from would be egg thieves!

One apsect of Labyrinth Fish breeding that tends to be overlooked is this: while quite a few aquarists maintain the aquarium water temperature with due skill and finesse, the temperature of the air layer above the water surface also needs managing. Remember after all that these fishes, in the wild, breed in bodies of water that are not only warm themselves, but blanketed on top by a layer of air that is also warm - frequently a good deal warmer than the water itself. Many Labyrinth Fish live in habitats that are best described as 'steaming jungle', where the air temperature during the breeding season can be in the high 90s Fahrenheit, and which moreover is laden with moisture. Controlling the air layer above the aquarium to provide the forthcoming baby fishes with warm, moist air is of importance if fry survival rates are to be enhanced. Usually, making sure that the aquarium cover is snug fitting and doesn't admit draughts is sufficient, though for some species (here read 'Chocolate Gourami' ) more assiduous measures need to be taken (even though the Chocolate Gourami is a mouthbrooder and not a bubble nest builder: the same proviso about warm air above the water surface still applies when the baby fishes take air into their labyrinth organs however, and especially with this sauna-loving species). Avoid draughts if you can above the bubble nest, and this will go a long way toward helping your fry survive. Of course, in a hot summer, you have few worries about chills: what you DO have to worry about if you live in a place where the summers are hot and dry, is keeping the air layer above the water surface suitably humid.

As for survival rates in a community aquarium, well, the bad news here is that even with good parental care by the male, once those fry hatch and drop out of the nest, if they don't have somewhere safe to hide such as a nice dense thicket of Myirophyllum or a forest of Java Moss growing on a bogwood stump, then the other fishes in the aquarium are going to take a heavy toll. However, if your Blue Gouramis are breeding, this will be offset by the fact that these fishes lay a lot of eggs - you can expect a well conditioned pair of large adults to produce 2,000 eggs, and so even if only 50% of them hatch, you're still looking at 1,000 fry ... the point here being that with that many fry materialising in the aquarium at once, you stand a chance of catching some and saving them in a breeding trap if you wish to try this, because the other fishes in the aquarium are going to be full to burping long before they've eaten 1,000 fry between them! In any case your Neons might not be large enough to join in the feast, which reduces the number of hungry mouths, your Panda Corys won't be able to get at them because they'll prefer to stay near the surface once there's no sign of danger, and so your biggest problem will be your Tetras, which will help themselves with relish to the poor fry, but again, 19 Tetras are going to be full to burping point some time before they've eaten 1,000 fry ...

I'd start saving the pennies for a breeding aquarium. If your fishes are happy enough in your care to breed in the community aquarium, then a special breeding aquarium will be an investment you'll be glad you made - not least because even if you only manage to raise 50 Blue Gouramis to a saleable size, that's still a good hunk of money in your pocket afterwards, as well as the rewards of having bred your fishes successfully.



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

thanx for all the information, very informative. The blue gourami's are the standard females dwarf gourami's
.

-Vincent

Today the flame is remaking his bubble nest so to help him out I added some more floating plants. Something that looks alittle like hornwort and a small water hyacinth which I will have to trim often.
Back to business

-Vincent

Good to hear that
Keep it high on quality feeding. Gouramis can take an attempt or two to learn how to make good parents, but they sure will. All the best this time
Do get some photos if possible...