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Pearl Gourami Babies?

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Post  AlexW. Mon Jan 21, 2013 6:38 pm

I have a pair of pearl gourami in my asian community tank. The male is hanging out near a bubble nest, but I am not sure if he has persuaded his lady friend. How do I know when there are eggs? What do they look like, or are they so tiny they can't be seen? I doubt any will survive in here as there are loachs and tiger barbs, both of which are pretty efficient little scavangers. I thought about trying to siphon the bubble nest into a ten gallon . Any thoughts?

[img]Pearl Gourami Babies? 2013-011[/img]
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Post  twocat Mon Jan 21, 2013 7:46 pm

You really need to put them in their own tank. A 10 gallon about 1/2 full works great. You will also need to cut the air flow off all togrther and put a top that covers the entire top of the tank. If they have laid eggs already I would suck them up and put them in their own container.
I have a pair now that I am trying to get to lay eggs.

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Post  AlexW. Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:09 am

How big are the eggs? I have seen angelfish eggs and krib eggs. Are they about the same size? How many fry can you keep in the ten gallon? I would imagine I will have to cull quite a few. Once they breed can they go back in the 55 or are they going to be ready to go at it again right away?
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Post  twocat Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:53 am

The eggs are very small, on day 3 or so you will have to take a double take and you will notice there are dots that are swimming in the tank. You will need to remove both parents if you have not already done this. Start feeding them a PINCH of crushed up flake food 2 x a day or you can use paprika. I have some fine powder that I can give you, if you want it pm me and I will leave it out for you to pick up. Angel and kribs eggs are about 4 x bigger then groumi eggs.

You can leave all of the fry in a 10 gallon for a few months. You will not need to cull any. You will have 100s of babies but as they grow the big ones will eat the small ones.

Once they lay eggs you can put both parents back in their old tank. If you want to breed them again then in about 10 days put them back in a small tank. In about 10 days after free swimming you should turn your sponge filter on with just a trickle of air.

Make sure that you put a glass cover over the tank with the fry. They need this in order for their lungs to develop.

Make sure that you only feed them a pinch of food.

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Post  DavidZ Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:45 am

I've raised Pearls before and they spawn alot like Bettas. If there are eggs you should be able to see them, however they are small. They will be opaque as apposed to the obviously clear bubbles. After 3 days or so you should see tails wiggling in the nest, then the Dad spitting babies back into the next a couple of days after that.

In your case with the nest in a tank with other fish, i think this is where I would try and siphon them out.

I'm not sure I would feed them paprika exclusively, which is normally used to enhance color, but would start with somehthing like Hikari First Bites or Microworms. I dont think Paprika has much nutritional value on its own. After a week or so BBS.

Good luck, Pearl spawns are usually pretty large and you could end up with 200 or more easily.

DZ


Last edited by DavidZ on Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:00 am; edited 1 time in total
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Post  DavidZ Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:00 am


BTW - I have Microworms if you need them. Great picture.
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Post  AlexW. Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:26 pm

I don't have a lid for my 10 gallon, so I was going to cover it with Saran Wrap, then poke some holes in it for oxygen exchange. Do you think that would work? You just want to keep the air above the water surface from drying out, right? Thanks for all of the advice guys, its great to have someone with more experience who will answer questions.

I have a powdered flake I can use Mark, but thanks for the offer.

I think I will take you up on the microworms David. Thank you. And the picture was really just luck that it turned out. I have absolutely no skill at photography.
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Post  DavidZ Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:35 pm


You want the air above the water to be humid, but also the same temp (or close) as the water.

This week is bad for being home in the evening. But I hope to be home most of Friday night and Saturday. Let me know what works for you.
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Post  AlexW. Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:38 pm

Either is fine.
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Post  twocat Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:30 am

What sizw tank do you have them in?

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Post  DavidZ Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:33 am



Alex - I'll PM you as soon as I know for sure where I'll be and when.

DZ
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Post  AlexW. Wed Jan 23, 2013 11:23 am

Right now they are in a 55. One is at each end of the tank. The male is hanging out near the nest and the female is on the opposite end. I didn't get a chance to look yesterday, but on Monday he was trying to coax her across the tank to the nest and she would get about half way there and roll over on her side then flee back to her side of the tank. I don't know what happened yesterday between work and running errands I wasn't there when the lights were on.

My plan is to get the female into the 10, let her sit in there for a day or two and really establish her territory. Then put the male in and see what happens. Meanwhile if I start to see wigglers in the nest then I am going to siphon them off into a bottle and try to raise them up until I can get a rearing tank set up. I have a couple 20s, another 10, a 29, a 55, and a hex tank all sitting empty. Potentially I have tons of space, but practically I have to convince my wife to get onboard. If any of this is successful then there will be lots of fry to give away at the meetings soon. Wish me luck.
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Post  DavidZ Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:08 pm


A 55 is pleanty of space to leave them in together. He will chase her off one they spawn, but there is enough room for her to run as he won't chase her far.

If it was mine I would just leave well enough alone and let them do their thing where they are. If/when you get babies being spit back into the nest siphon them into something smaller and coverable (is that a word?) and start the microworms in a day or so.

My .02.

Good luck.

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Post  AlexW. Tue Jan 29, 2013 10:02 pm

I think a 55 is either too much space or not enough. She either can't find his nest or she can't get away. I had two females one was killed by the male, then he chased the other one around the tank until I separated them by putting her in a breeder net. I gave her a couple days to heal up then switched them and gave her a couple days to establish a territory. I then let him back out, and he immediately went right back to chasing. I got home today and she looked to be getting ready to die. I put her back in the breeder net and realized her eye is damaged and her nose is scraped up. I can only assume it is from running from him.

He is building a nest, she is full of eggs. I'm not sure why they don't just get on with it. At first I didn't want a spawn, but now that I am so close I would like to see it happen. I think one male and two females was not enough for a community. They need to spread out thier amorous agression.

Tonight I am going to set her up in a 20 tall and let her heal. In a couple weeks I may put him in her tank for a couple hours and watch them closely to see what happens. In the mean time I just need to condition them and let her recover.

I thought these were supposed to be easy to breed.
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Post  AlexW. Fri Feb 01, 2013 2:34 am

Sad news. My female didn't make it. She was just too beat up. Maybe I will take some time away from them and try again when I can set up a dedicated breeding set up.
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Post  twocat Fri Feb 01, 2013 5:45 am

Did your fry make it ?

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Post  AlexW. Fri Feb 01, 2013 1:00 pm

Unfortunately I didn't get any fry, and now I look in the tank and my male isn't looking good when I checked the tank this morning. I am thinking this all has something to do with my cats. I found a pile of cat puke on top of my fish tank the other day. I cleaned up the top and scooped out any food that got into the tank, but I am wondering if it changed my pH or something. Or maybe he tried to eat it and it was full of bile. It just doesn't make any sense why its only affecting the gouramis, especially when they were fine until I started introducing a male.
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Post  DavidZ Fri Feb 01, 2013 1:40 pm


I think I would get him out of that tank pretty quickly.
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Post  AlexW. Fri Feb 01, 2013 1:49 pm

I noticed it right before I had to leave for work this morning, so I am hoping he is still ok when I get home. This is really frustrating because I just had the water tested before all this and it was 0 nitrate 0 nitrite and pH7.8.
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Post  AlexW. Sat Feb 02, 2013 2:05 am

Well I found the male dead when I got home. I think I found the culprit too. When I went in to get him out the water was ice cold. My guess is a failed heater. The rest off the fish in there are much more tolerant off cold water. Primarily botias and tiger barbs. I wish I had figured it out before it cost me some nice fish.
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