AboutBenty Expertise GOT A QUESTION ABOUT:
Basic needs for specific fish, illnesses, best tankmates, breeding, water chemistry, tricks to safely cut corners, and/or “stupid” questions? Maybe I can help! :)
I like to explain why you do things in aquariums (like why to use spring instead of distilled, or what pH numbers mean, ect.) so you understand why and not just taking someone’s word for it. I also like giving answers where you have two choices so you can choose which is best for the time and money you can commit to your fish. I understand how tight money can be and how expensive fish related things get.
I will NEVER leave you with an “I don’t know.” Ever. I hate that. That would waste your time and that's just mean. :)
Puedo contestar tus preguntas en español también.
Experience I have had tropical fish since 1999. I currently have: a 55gal, ten 10gal, 3 five gallons, three 2gal, and a bunch of jars and bowls. At the time I'm typing this, I have: 14 angels, 13 goldfish, 73 bettas, 12 barbs, 5 catfish, too many guppies, 4 gouramis, 2 plecos, 10 loaches, bunch of swordtails, and probably a few others, lol.
I love to rescue fish. I've had everything from mutant danios, to one eyed goldfish, to my newest adoptee, a 2 year old betta with a MASSIVE tumor problem. He was brought to a pet shop and left there because the lady didn't know what to do with him. He's pretty scary looking. One of the guys at the store there I know let me have him. :D YAY! Elephant Man lives in a gallon bowl with pretty stones in my bathroom.
Plus!!!
I sell: veil, delta, halfmoon, plakat, and crowntail bettas as well as halfblack and blonde tuxedo fancy guppies. Ask me about it sometime.
Question Hello
I have two dwarf gourami and I'm not exactly sure if they're male and female. However, i have seen them swimming in circles around each other which I understand is a mating ritual. But I do not see a bubble nest yet and its been 3 days. I have dropped the water level to 7 inches, and i do have a filter, but it is running at a low level. What should I do?
Answer Hey Christopher,
First off, let me make sure you have everything for it, okay? Okay!
1. Do you plan on taking care of at least 500 or so babies that will grow into adults that may or may not ever have another home? Do you have the housing for the babies you will create?
2. Do you have the right food for the babies? They can't eat powered flakes or baby brine shrimp. They have to have infusoria, microworms or vinegar eels. Do you have a culture that's already producing? Don't breed babies that will starve. It takes about 3 days to have a set up culture start producing.
3. Are they the same color gourami? Breeding different color strains is bad. It produces fish they are unwanted by aquarist. You undo the work of years of selective breeding. Not good.
4. What kind of tank are they in?
5. Filters will suck up babies even on low levels. The only kind of filter that can be in a breeding tank like that is a sponge filter. Check them out. Just look them up on the web. You can make your own. This is a GREAT site! http://www.aquariumlife.net/projects/diy-filter/19.asp
You don't have to have a filter to have a good spawn though. It's just A LOT better.
6. Heater? Babies have to be kept at a constant temp.
Ok now that that part is over...
Normal colisa lalia (dwarf gourami) breeding goes like this:
1) Set up a dedicated tank in case you don`t have, with the male and one or two females. Dwarf gourami creates bubble nests so they need to be separate from the community aquarium crowd that could break the nest. Use a 5 gallons or bigger tank, without gravel or sand on the ground. Put a good number of plants, some of them floating, some other can be fixed in one or more small pots. The aquarium must be closed and must have a good lightening system, the death of plants during breeding can pollute the water and kill the fry. The breeding tank needs also a heater and a filter, put a small net or sponge in front of the water way in, to avoid fry to end inside the filter.
2) Choose young and healthy fish. Within the colisa lalia species, it is hard to see the ovipositor (white tiny tube where the eggs come out of the female) and sometimes a fat belly female can be mistaken for a female ready to spawn eggs; that`s why a good feeding is important.
Breeding can be described in these steps:
- raise the temperature to 80°F (27°C) and lower the water level.
- the male builds a bubble nest with the help of plants. The nest is usually built among floating plants like Pistia stratiotes, and among bubbles there are often small parts of other plants, broken and chewed by the male. From now it is better to switch off the filter.
- after some days of rich feeding even twice a day with frozen or live food, female could be ready for spawning. During courtship, the male swims around the female and try to take her under the nest. In case she accepts the courtship they start swimming in circles, and when she`s ready to spawn she touches the body and fins of the male with the mouth.
- Gourami usually embrace various times, every time after the egg spawning the male stops to collect the fallen eggs and put them in the nest.
- if there is more than the female present in the aquarium, the male will spawn with all. The spawning usually takes some hours and the number of eggs reach 500.
- after spawning the male covers the egg with a layer of bubbles, to avoid them falling down. At this point all the females should be removed because the male could become aggressive to protect the nest.
- after two days usually fry come out the egg, and after three more days they will be able to swim, at this time the male should be removed, because could eat the fry. Now that the nest is useless the filter can switched on again.
- for at least the 2 weeks, they should be feed with infusoria and other small foods like vinegar eels and micro worms, then you can give them LIVE newly hatched brine shrimps.
Check out the library near you too! Sometimes they have great books! You don't want it to end in a horrible experience with the whole thing so learn as much as you can now. :)
