I have / had 3 Blue Gouramis in a community tank. I've had them for quite a while and one of them started building a bubble nest yesterday. He pretty much stays in the same corner of the tank shooting water/bubbles into his little nest spot between a piece of driftwood and the side of the tank. His color has turned magnificent, the spots on his fins are almost neon white/blue and his body looks almost like a zebra. The female's color gets deeper during spawning activity too. They've done a lot of the rubbing and have seen them in spawning embrace so there should definitely be eggs.
My concern is that, this morning, my smallest gourami was dead. I watched the male chasing around the large female with whom he's been mating; however, I never once saw him chase after the small one, so it couldn't have been a bullying death. Should I hold off on replacing the 3rd gourami? I like to have more than 2...but I don't want to add a new one to this tank if it's going to be in danger since I have no idea why my little guy died. I'm not even sure if the small one was male or female - I never bothered sexing it because it was still so small and I wasn't expecting any gourami breeding.
I also was not TRYING to breed any of my fish and the bubble nest was a surprise. I know I should probably be isolating the male alone with the bubble nest away from the female and other fish but I don't exactly know how to go about doing that without disturbing the nest.
55 gallons, sand substrate, floating driftwood, fake plants
Temperature: 80 degrees pH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrate: 40ppm (due for cleanup, I know)
Tankmates: 3 clown loaches, 3 tiger barbs, 3 Rainbowfish, 1 common pleco
My concern is that, this morning, my smallest gourami was dead. I watched the male chasing around the large female with whom he's been mating; however, I never once saw him chase after the small one, so it couldn't have been a bullying death. Should I hold off on replacing the 3rd gourami? I like to have more than 2...but I don't want to add a new one to this tank if it's going to be in danger since I have no idea why my little guy died. I'm not even sure if the small one was male or female - I never bothered sexing it because it was still so small and I wasn't expecting any gourami breeding.
I also was not TRYING to breed any of my fish and the bubble nest was a surprise. I know I should probably be isolating the male alone with the bubble nest away from the female and other fish but I don't exactly know how to go about doing that without disturbing the nest.
55 gallons, sand substrate, floating driftwood, fake plants
Temperature: 80 degrees pH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrate: 40ppm (due for cleanup, I know)
Tankmates: 3 clown loaches, 3 tiger barbs, 3 Rainbowfish, 1 common pleco
