[Somnifor]

I have a pair of banded gouramis that spawned for the first time today. I have Green Severums that spawn on a regular basis but I have no experience spawning or raising anabantoids. I am wondering if anyone here has any knowledge on this subject.

The male looked like he was building a bubble nest yesterday so I moved all the other fish in the tank besides the female. They spawned today while I was at work. I removed the female when I got home. It looks like most of the bubble nest fell apart in the (gentle) surface currents. The eggs are mostly floating on the surface of the water. Is this going to be a problem? In my severum tank I let the newly free swimming fry graze off of the micro organisms that live on a heavy algae growth that I don't clean. I also feed them pureed bloodworms for the first week and then switch to frozen baby brine shrimp. Will this work for gourami fry? I have never been able to make infusoria successfully.

 

[henningc]

I have reared these guys before and they are not too difficult. First, the eggs will be fine floating. Once they start free swimming, get the male out as he is done. The fry do eat micro organizms in the algea, but you will need to add additional food. I'd take a jar of aquarium water and add about a tea spoon of scraped off algea then place it in a sunny window. If you can siphone a little fish poop it will go faster. Within 2-4 days the water should turn pea green. Feed enough to form a small cloud in the water daily. I'd also suggest until that jar is ready, taking some tank algea and blending it up to make green water. Just get some scrapings and mix in a jar of aquarium water. After 5-6 days free swimming they should be getting close to being able to eat baby brine shrimp. I'd really recommend the live baby brine, it is not difficult. You can also get a food called Golden Pearls from Brineshrimpdirect.com. It is small enough for them and in fact smaller than brine shrimp. Lotsoffish.com has their own great fry food and it works very, very well. I'm not sure about using the blood worms. Gourami and most antabantid fry are a lot more sensitive than cichlids. If you like using the green water then here is a handy trick to use. Make a jar of green water in the window-just as above-and when it is really green pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze. When you see the gouramis getting ready to spawn, take aquarium water, fish poop and a cube and start a green water culture in the window. That way by the time they need it you have it. You can also just allow the cube to melt and feed it that way. I's also highly recommend an over size sponge filter in the tank. It is a micro organism farm.

Just in case you are not aware, most antabantid fry need to have a covered tank so the air and water temp stay the same. If not the organ allowing them to breath gets infected and bye bye fry.

Best of luck and P.M. me when the fry are ready to re-home.

 

[henningc]

Were you able to raise the fry???? If you had issues with fry food P.M. me as I found a new and totally simple trick.

 

[jimscott]

I've raised various Trichogaster, Colisa, and Bettas before. Generally speaking, they will consume whatever is in their yolk sacs for about a week. I had straw in the tank to initiate Infusoira. I had a brine shrimp hatchery and fed them baby brine, followed by baby egglayer food, which is basically pulverized flake food. As stated above, you need to keep the tank covered. I also had a filter going, mainly to circulate water, to keep the temp more uniform.