Advice on Three Spot Gurami breeding needed.

Good day all, I need some advice please.

I bought what was sold to me as a breeding pair Blue Gourami's (In Fact is see its Three spot gourami) roughly 18 months ago. It turned out to be two females. After realizing it a month later, I found a single Blue gurami in a petshop tank and decided to buy it with the hope that it will be a male and it turned out to be one. They showed no interest in mating and i moved them into an tank with a catfish, 2 x clown loathes and a big pleco just to keep the cycle going in the tank while I decided what to do with the tank.

Two days ago i took a picture of the three to sell them off because I have ordered a bunch of Angles for this tank, while looking at the pic i saw the one female was carrying eggs. Moved them back to a vacant breeding tank and gave them a Beta breeding leave. The female immediately started hiding behind the sponge filter and the male started building the bubble nest.

He then started to chase her, over and over again for 2 days till she submitted and dropped her eggs. Male moved them to the bubble nest and wont leave them alone for more than a minute, very attentive.

The female went straight back to her hiding spot and does not look good at this stage, skin colorations and I can't even see her spots anymore. I will post pics of them before moving and of her now.

Is this normal? Should i remove her and rather put her back in the big tank with the other female. Does anyone know why she would change like this. I am a bit worried about her.

EDIT: I just went to the fish room to check on her and saw that he is still chasing her, she still submits from time to time and it seems like she is still dropping eggs. New question, for how long can this process continue? I guess she wont drop all at once, but how long do i keep her in there.

The night i moved them. Middle one carrying the eggs.



Her now after being chased for 2 days.



Male guarding his bubble nest and then in the last picture a few eggs is visible hanging from the big bubble. I cant get clear pics there and dont want to frighten him and have him eat the eggs.

 

I would suggest moving her back, but preferably to an isolation tank to recover since the other female is likely to pick on her. Leave the male in until the eggs hatch. The fry will need micro food.

 

I have 3 homemade brine shrimp hatcheries going for some other fry, rotating them and starting a new one about every 4-5 days, as one gets low on supply the others are hatching and can be used again.

 

Congrats on the eggs!

That's awesome, good luck with rearing them. BBS is definitely the way to go

 

I smell an article!

 

Was out this afternoon to see a client, came back to find that some have hatched.



@Dolphin should I remove the male as well?

 

Soon...

 

Can a Moderator please change the name from Blue to Three Spot gourami.

 

The fry is very active and some even started swimming around returning to the leaf after a while. Trying to count them in clusters and estimate a total of not less than 200.

First food given, a very fine powder, that floats on the surface and a lot of the fry clings to that and started nibbling away.

I truly hope to raise a good number of them, I am not sure what their survival rates are. By far the smallest fry I ever had in one of my tanks.

 

Just some feedback. Basically day 7 or 8 today and the little guys are doing great. A tank 2 foot tank full of fry growing every day. Increasing in size that i can start seeing food in the stomachs. Another few days and they would be able to eat brine shrimp babies. Steep quick learning curve.

 

Great job on the progress!