My first glimpse of Dwarf Gourami fry!

After several weeks of waiting and hoping, I saw the first fry today at the very top of our column tank. There are dozens of babies up there, just big enough to see with the naked eye. On top of that, the dwarfs have been mating again over the last couple of days in the same spot, with a new bubble nest and lots more eggs!

What surprises me is that the adults haven't tried to eat the young and the male is actually swimming among them without any problem. Yesterday there were two females taking it in turns with the one male, so I have no idea how many eggs there are up there now!

Now comes the long wait, to see just how many can make it through. I have so far counted at least 100 free-swimming fry. They seem to be quite active and with no fear of the larger fish. The male is chasing away all others and protecting not just his batch of eggs, but the fry as well. I'm not going to shut him out of there, which may be a mistake, but he is so protective, I feel it would be more of a risk to remove him than to leave him there.

This brood has defied all the rules.
Firstly, they are at the top of the column, in nearly 4' of water.
Secondly, we have not removed either of the parents, since there is plenty of room for the female to escape from her mate, I saw no need.
Thirdly I have made no attempt to feed the young, since I didn't even know there were any!
Forth a male is still with them and I would estimate that they have to be at least two to three weeks old.
Fifth, they are not his brood! I changed the male last week when Jack, my red dwarf contracted dropsy due to spending too long guarding the nest without feeding himself. The male that is there now is a new one that I purchased a couple of weeks ago.

Nature never ceases to amaze! It just goes to show that there are no rules to breeding, just a matter of doing what you do and hoping! Lol

 

Congrats!! The male normally guards the eggs and fry in nature so it was just second nature for the new male to guard them. Sometimes pheremones(sp) from mating/past mating fish will cause other fish to mate. Your gonna have a tank full before you know it keep us posted and we need pics as soon as possible.
Carol

 

wow nice one congrats I hope my cockatoo cichlid breed. They have paired off in the last couple days so maybe........

 

That is VERY COOL!!

 

Pics will be along as soon as I can find a camera with a good zoom!

This is the best I can get for now. They are very small and through the glass, it doesn't come out very clearly. I have circled the ones I can make out, along with some of the eggs from the latest mating.

 

hI I have seen some bubbles in my tank/lining the top of it and I was wondering what "bubble nests" look like??

 

Wow, that is so so tiny! You are right- nature defies all the set rules

--R

 

very cool. yea, the anabantoid fry start out so tiny when they hatch! congrats on them.

 

I managed to get a reasonable video showing the little critters swimming around. You need to look very carefully as they are only about 3mm in length.

 

do they look like little black stubble when you look at them? our betta fry did at first. congrats on all the fry!

 

pretty well like that, only they are brownish not black

 

it's fun watching the anabantoids develop. very interesting.

 

Congratulations on the fry! 100, though. Whatcha going to do with all these fish?

I watched the video but could only see the white spots. Am I not looking at the right place?

 

I think it's like those 3d pictures.. you sort of have to not look to see the movement since they're so small (and youtube lowers vid quality to boot).

 

Oh, am buggered then. The only thing I was ever able to see in those 3D pictures was that giant rabbit one. And even then, I could only ever see its hip or ears then I'd loose it! l

 

Oh, am buggered then. The only thing I was ever able to see in those 3D pictures was that giant rabbit one. And even then, I could only ever see its hip or ears then I'd loose it! l

I never could get those to work for me. I lost intrest in even trying long before that fad died out.

 

I have made a better video now using my trusty magnifying glass! It's

I'v ejust made another one too, which is uploading to YouTube now. Link to follow

 

Like your new video alot! Great job on it and I like how you added the adult gourami as well. That's a lot of fry for sure, good luck with them! ;D
~ kate

 

Here's the new link:

 

Here's the new link:

WOW they have much more form now too... very nice! I'm also uploading a youtube video of the discus tank now too...
Stop by the discus species section where it will be uploaded soon to check it out! ;D

 

Here's the new link:

WOW they have much more form now too... very nice! I'm also uploading a youtube video of the discus tank now too...
Stop by the discus species section where it will be uploaded soon to check it out! ;D

you've got a video of larry, moe and curly up? cool

 

Here's the new link:

WOW they have much more form now too... very nice! I'm also uploading a youtube video of the discus tank now too...
Stop by the discus species section where it will be uploaded soon to check it out! ;D

you've got a video of larry, moe and curly up? cool

LOL.... IM starting to cave in... called the big discus, Moe yesterday... But no video yet, I decided to try out the movie maker program and I'm still working on it!

 

LOL.... IM starting to cave in... called the big discus, Moe yesterday... But no video yet, I decided to try out the movie maker program and I'm still working on it!

LOL. your hubby will have you saying "nyuk, nyuk, nyuk" before long. !

 

Very fast growth from these little fellas now. This was taken just before I cleaned the tank, now they are all over the 62 gallon tank. I have had to re-locate all the adults from there to other tanks to save the little ones being eaten for lunch!

It does dispense with one rule though. The fry are not affected by the water pressure in the deep tank. The water is nearly 4' deep at the bottom of the column and the young are swimming up and down quite happily since I removed the shutter over the flute. this leads me to think that this is definitely a better breeding method than the standard setup, since it removes any risk of disturbance of the nest, the young and gives them a safe and stable environment.

 

they do take off when they start growing, don't they? I love watching them grow and am considering the results you're having in relation to us using the 30 gallon as a grow-out tank. but then I lose an excuse to get another tank. your little ones are sure coming along nicely.

 

They now have free run of my 62 gallon! Need an excuse?...lol

 

Yeah our molly fry grew up in a 30G by themselves and enjoyed every minute of it! Not so smug now their parents have joined them.

 

They now have free run of my 62 gallon! Need an excuse?...lol

true.. true.. I guess I just need something to think of when we're eating fish flakes..

 

It's putting quite a strain on my other tanks, having to re-locate all the adults, and the parents have started again now! I put them in another tank, threw some floating plants in there and bingo! They're at it again! (Did someone mention bromide?) I can see that dwarf gouramis are going to be in plentiful supply soon, at least, round here!

I think I'll just use the column for fry from now on... it should be able to hold at least 300! (Might have problems catching them though, when it's time for them to move on)

 

have those gourami been taking lessons from livebearers or something? ! lol.. the mahachaI betta are like that too.

 

Oh, am buggered then. The only thing I was ever able to see in those 3D pictures was that giant rabbit one. And even then, I could only ever see its hip or ears then I'd loose it!

I never could get those to work for me. I lost intrest in even trying long before that fad died out.

they had those pics all over the walls in my maths classroom at a-level. I spent far too much time trying to "see" them I didnt learn a thing in maths :....never got to "see" the pictures either! that was a waste of a few hours a week!! I reckon its all a load of rubbish and there's no picture there. it is just as it looks......a pretty pattern of colours and those who say there "is" a picture are just afraid to admit they don't see it!!!!

 

wow!! what a lot of fry! when will they start to show colour? will the colour match that of the parents or will you get random colours from previous generations etc?
i'd love to have some gouramis, but have no where for them to go. i'd love a betta too, but again, no space! will just keep admiring yours instead!!!! good luck! your fish and tanks certainly keep you busy! do you have 50 hours in your day too like FLbettacouple? or just never sleep?

 

tan, you keep forgetting the vampire betta that takes away the need for sleep.. oh yea, and a few clones too.

 

sleep is something that I do when I get the time, but the fish do tend to keep me busy!

when will they start to show colour?

They are already starting to show colour now at three weeks old. The males are growing much faster than the females too. I now have an idea of who the father is for some of them, as the two fathers were different colours, one red, the other blue. I have both colours amongst the fry, the red ones being much bigger then the blue, indicating that they came from the first batch of 4, the blue ones following closely, but not as big, so I would guess that they are batch two, answering the question about colours through generations.

there are now 6 distinct sizes of fry, from the large red males to the very small fry, which have not yet stared showing any colour at all. They could be female or more likely batch 4.

I can still find at least 50 in the tank, but it is now almost impossible to find them all in the 62 gallon growing out tank they are in. When they get a little bigger, I will move them to a more suitably sized tank, but right now it's trying to catch them all!

The adults are trying to sporn again in the other tank, but without much success, mainly because they don't have the room for escape they had in the column. I have ordered more glass to build a new column on the tank they are in now, but it won't be fitted until at least the end of the week, so I just hope they don't lose interest while they are waiting!

BTW, the bettas failed to breed the other week, so the dwarfs are taking preference for now. maybe when I get the column breeding sorted out I'll give them another chance. In the meantime, I am trying to source some mahachis over here to see if they will breed the same way as the gouramis. If they would then I think we may be able to make a real difference to the population!

(Just imagine breeding them on the same sort of scale as the gouramis! maybe others would look seriously at the method I've developed here.)

Any ideas as to how I could get a pair into the UK? Most of the sources I have tried can't or won't get them in. I've been offered a female bristle to go with my male though, which will be very good for the bottom of the breeders. that will test my theory on dual use of the column tank as a breeding environment!

 

wish I could send you a pair but the shipping would be crazy.. try the contacts listed for the UK at the IBC chapters page: .. they have a program for the mahachaI so that might be the best bet to get a pair there.

 

Found more fry in the Greek tank today. Only put the fish in there to rest, but they just don't seem to be able to stop! I don't want to disturb them again, so this time I'm going to leave them alone and see what happens. I'm keeping a keen eye on the tank now, so that if he badgers the females too much, I'll pull them out again. I'm rapidly running out of tanks!

Just for those who might be interested, I've taken a picture of the food supply for these little fellas. I have two BBS breeding bottles fitted into polystyrene tiles which float in the tank. The tank temp is steady at 80C. With an airline running into them, they are each producing a fresh batch every 18 hours , so I won't run out of BBS for a while!

 

excellent idea for your fish breeding emporium there!

 

You're only jealous! lol

wait till I get hold of those bettas... then you'll find out just how effective my methods can be!....

 

Timg is FULL of good ideas!!!

 

anything to save space, time and money! (Need to save the money to buy more marmite!) lol