Hi all,
I've just set up a 150L tank and my first proper acquisition was 4 dwarf gouramis 4 days ago (I'd already transferred 8 assorted tetras and a bristle-nose plec from an old tank; they'd been in the new tank for a fortnight or so). I really wasn't expecting the gouramis to spawn yet as it's a new tank and, while they all looked great under the LFS's low lighting, once I got them home under the bulbs in my tank I realised that they could be healthier (some were a bit patchy looking).
However I looked in the tank last night and one of the males had started to build a nest in the roots of my floating plants. None of them were laying claim to it and were all just hanging out and feeding as normal but this morning there's a male closely guarding it and a female sat in the cabomba a few inches away. Every so often they do their dance and the male spits the eggs into the nest. So far so good you might say but I think the male in charge of the nest has been fighting as he's looking really embattled. He's lost a piece of one of his feelers and his fins and tail are quite ragged looking and his scales are patchy. None of the other fish have any similar wounds but, oddly, it looks as though the female is the one being aggro towards him because after they do their dance she chases after him and harasses him. I'm not convinced that he's up to the task of being a father to be honest.
Obviously I don't want to lose him and in actual fact I don't particularly want gourami babies so I was considering taking him out of the big tank and giving him a week or so to recover in my 10G (empty but for two very reclusive kuhli loaches) thereby ending the whole process in the large tank. Do you guys think that this would just stress him out more though? What would happen to the nest in the big tank if he abandons it? Would interrupting it all stress the spawning female? Or should I just let them get on with it and trust that he's tough enough to see it through?
Thanks everyone!
I've just set up a 150L tank and my first proper acquisition was 4 dwarf gouramis 4 days ago (I'd already transferred 8 assorted tetras and a bristle-nose plec from an old tank; they'd been in the new tank for a fortnight or so). I really wasn't expecting the gouramis to spawn yet as it's a new tank and, while they all looked great under the LFS's low lighting, once I got them home under the bulbs in my tank I realised that they could be healthier (some were a bit patchy looking).
However I looked in the tank last night and one of the males had started to build a nest in the roots of my floating plants. None of them were laying claim to it and were all just hanging out and feeding as normal but this morning there's a male closely guarding it and a female sat in the cabomba a few inches away. Every so often they do their dance and the male spits the eggs into the nest. So far so good you might say but I think the male in charge of the nest has been fighting as he's looking really embattled. He's lost a piece of one of his feelers and his fins and tail are quite ragged looking and his scales are patchy. None of the other fish have any similar wounds but, oddly, it looks as though the female is the one being aggro towards him because after they do their dance she chases after him and harasses him. I'm not convinced that he's up to the task of being a father to be honest.
Obviously I don't want to lose him and in actual fact I don't particularly want gourami babies so I was considering taking him out of the big tank and giving him a week or so to recover in my 10G (empty but for two very reclusive kuhli loaches) thereby ending the whole process in the large tank. Do you guys think that this would just stress him out more though? What would happen to the nest in the big tank if he abandons it? Would interrupting it all stress the spawning female? Or should I just let them get on with it and trust that he's tough enough to see it through?
Thanks everyone!
