My Gourami breeding Journal

Hello and welcome to my Gourami breeding Journal

Follow me as I attempt to breed my Banded gourami(Trichogaster fasciata). This will be my first time trying to breed Gourami after a half hearted attempt a few years ago with Pearl Gourami and a more recent successful spawn of Black Paradise Gourami(Macropodus spechti) which in the case of the later it was harder trying to stop them from spawning.

The purpose of this thread is to keep myself motivated. I'm always good at coming up with grand plans but better at giving up on them, this way I'll put a little pressure on myself to actually get things done . Hopefully we can all learn something along the way and regardless there should be some nice photo's of some not so common Gourami.

What this Journal isn't: It's not a super scientific, in depth study on how Gourami breed don't expect water parameters to show up every other sentence that is just not me and not how I typically do things. Don't expect minute by minute updates, or even daily, it's going to be updated when it's updated.... Between work commitments, my child and generally motivation updates can and will vary but I will try my best to keep it going.

Now to begin... well not yet .I need to make space and more so find space for the batch of Black Paradise fry to go. They are getting bigger and could do with a bigger tank than the 12 gallon they are currently in and sharing with some... species of Pencil fish. Both of which will have to move because it is the tank I plan on using for the breeding project. This is the first thing I need to figure out, it could be a quick solution or could end up taking a while to get sorted.

This is all for now as I have a bunch of much needed tank maintenance to do. I'll post some photo's later today


Update: 1
Now we start!
Black Paradise fry are in a 63 gallon along with the rest of the Banded Gourami and some Dojo Loaches. I had thought about doing this in the past but was hesitant while the fry were smaller for fear of either the Banded gourami doing something or the Dojo's predating on them but seen how they are as big or bigger than the Endlers that are in there I've decided now is the time! Still this isn't my ideal as when they are older they may become an issue for the Bandeds. The father is on his own(well with one fry from the same spawn but I kept separate to see what would work best) in a 33 gallon but I was afraid he might not take to them now they are slightly bigger. Eventually when they look more like adults I will combine them however that is for the future.

I moved the Pencils in with my Honey Gourami pair, hopefully they do ok together both are fairly inoffensive fish that have similar requirements.

Well I have a male and female in the 12 together let's see what happens!
(Photo's coming later, the glare is impossible to work with )

 

hope it goes well! watching this thread

 

Here is the potential couple, these photo's really don't do these fish justice
Female:


Male:

 

Quick update:
Well I have separated them for now as the male was harassing the female too much the poor girl was in the bottom corner of the tank. So lesson learned. They'll be separate until he is ready.
I feel like I should take my own advice on this, keeping them in pairs is not a good setup for Gourami. A group is a must in my opinion and the behaviour that was shown(what I saw) is exactly why. A dominant fish is often too much for just the single conspecific having more to create that social hierarchy is what is needed. Now of course the behaviour was only exacerbated because of the small tank.

So put a ? on the photo of the female because I'm not sure if we will have the same one as I have 6 or 7 in the tank and the all look roughly the same.

 

i cant wait to see what happens. also are you ok if i steal the breeding journal idea?

 

breeding journal idea?

Oh this is often posted here on fishlore there are quite a few here that keep journals on breeding fish most with a lot more knowledge than me. So go ahead and make one



Update 2;
It's not going very well so far and my attempts to "entice" him into making a bubble nest has cost me one of my females I'm having second thoughts on doing this altogether but we shall see.

So some things that are now different: The water level has been reduced to around 6"(previously around double this) and the temperature has increased to over 80f(I had thought this was already the case but the heater turned out to be defective). He has been in these conditions for around 2 days and today I started him on live foods(previously on frozen as well as granules).

The mistake on my part came after I had altered the conditions, I figured the presence of a female might encourage him along with the changing conditions. I left her over a couple of nights(she hid for the most part) but when I check on her condition today she was torn up missing scales and most of her tail. Not a very nice sight to see.

I'll keep pushing through for now, the idea of having a shoal of these fish is too tempting. I'm going to proceed with a lot more caution going further into this.

 

When I had to separate pairs of other fish sp., I would keep them side by side with half the tank blocked for privacy.
I made sure to feed both in the same spot at the same time so they would see each other.
Did the same with pairs.
Spirit of competition and desire!
Your guys need covers so they don't jump while excited.

 

When I had to separate pairs of other fish sp., I would keep them side by side with half the tank blocked for privacy.
I made sure to feed both in the same spot at the same time so they would see each other.
Did the same with pairs.
Spirit of competition and desire!
Your guys need covers so they don't jump while excited.

Really appreciate the advice! This is something I've also considered doing as they seem to be having a hard time settling in to any new environment.
I have something I could use as a makeshift divider. I think I'm going to try and set this up over the next couple of days.

 

Update:
Been kind of busy lately and not much time or energy(mostly energy) to really do anything myself. One thing that did occur to me is the maturity of these fish. I can't quite remember when I got my male or the last group of females. In terms of size they look about right and in terms of age I'm not completely sure, it has been either under 7 months or over 8 months(since I have owned them. Assuming when at the shop they would be around 3 or 4 months), they are likely just coming into sexual maturity.

Probably should've thought about this beforehand but I've had Bandeds for a while now and the time has seemed to of flown by recently, that it just didn't occur that this would be a factor. So I think I will put a hold on this project for the time being and try again in a few months time.

I will definitely come back to this in the near(ish) future.

 

Update:
Been kind of busy lately . . .

What? Just because you have a baby in the house? That's no excuse!!!

. . . and that's sarcasm, in case anyone didn't get it.

 

What? Just because you have a baby in the house? That's no excuse!!!

. . . and that's sarcasm, in case anyone didn't get it.

Actually I meant work, she's fairly easy going

 

What? Just because you have a baby in the house? That's no excuse!!!

. . . and that's sarcasm, in case anyone didn't get it.

Is it sarcasm if you have to say it is sarcasm ?

 

Is it sarcasm if you have to say it is sarcasm ?

You shouldn't have to, but I didn't want anyone to get their knickers in a knot.