My dwarf gourami is making a bubble nest!

ReignsAngel

ReignsAngel

AC Members
Nov 17, 2006
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Ft. Walton Beach, FL.
So, we were planning on doing a partial water change today when we noticed Bullrock was carrying a leaf up to the top back corner of the tank. I had noticed the past few days that the top big leaves on our Temple plant were looking really "soft", and now I know why. Bullrock was softening them up to tear them apart and use them in his nest. On one hand we have a really nice little bubble nest in the corner, on the other, we have a ravaged poor little Temple plant, lol.

So gourami parents, what should we expect next? There are two females in there with Bullrock: Shynee and Powderpuff. Will he court them? Or will they find the nest themselves? Also, would it be ok to do a water change? Should I leave the Temple plant in there? Should I keep my lighting cycles the same, or should I leave the bulb off more to give them some "quiet" time? :)

We are pretty excited! After losing our two powder blue dwarfs, we are excited to see if these guys will give us some babies. It is really quite impressive watching this "big" tough Bullrock toiling away making his little nest for the girls. I hope he gets lucky. hehe. :)

Thank you for your input.
 
Sadly I don't have any advice. I just couldn't resist commenting. :) It sounds like you are in for one amazing experience. I haven't heard many people talk about breeding gouramis so this is a first for me.

Congrats on your bubble nest! I hope many healthy fry follow that :)
Are you going to take pictures of the process? (ie nest building, courting, fry, survivers :))
 
Oh thank you Feather Duster. :) I don't have a camera that can take detailed enough pictures. I will try though. :) It's really neat watching him pull up pieces of leaf in his little mouth and tuck them into the bubbles. He will grab a hold of that plant and shake his head pulling off pieces. I've heard that dwarf gouramis can be hard to breed, so we are pretty excited about this behavior.

We really need to do a water change, but I'm afraid to disturb his nest. Is there anything I can do?
 
It's ok do a water change. There's nothing really for you to do unless you want to breed them. He will spawn in your 29 with the most ready female and will defend the nest from even her in the days after. With the Killis and danios in the tank, it is unlikely that the tiny fry will make it.

If you want to breed them, move him and his leaves to the 10 gallon that you have empty. You can siphon the whole nest off to the tank if you want or use a cup and scoop it up. Only put 2" of water in it and put a glass top on it to keep the temp stable. Get a plastic (sterlite or rubbermaid) tub that you can set the tank in. Fill the tub with 3-4" of water, place a small submersible heater in it and adjust temp to 82 degrees. This is the easiest way to heat the tank other than putting it in a room that you can maintain at 82 degrees.

After he rebuilds the bubble nest, introduce both the females to the tank by putting them in clear glass jars in the tank with 2-3" of water in each. This way he can see them and they can see him, but he can't go nutso on them if they aren't ready to spawn. After a couple days, you can try releasing the females into the tank with him and see what they do. If your females are full of eggs, one should spawn with him.

Watch them carefully though, he can go ballistic in a short time and really hurt the females if they aren't ready. If one of them pairs off with him right off and is belligerent to the other female, move the other female back to your 29.

As soon as they spawn, you will find him tending to the nest and keeping her away from it. Remove her immediately. You can then remove the male once the fry hatch.

If you have any more questions, I'll be glad to answer.
 
Nola, if we leave them in the 29, will he attack the females? If we do move them to a 10g, how would be go about filtration, because 3 inches of water would be hard to get a filter into. Any recommendations?
 
Here is a dark pic, but it's Bullrock heading to his nest. It's cute watching him work.
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Here is a top shot.
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You don't need filtration in the 10 gallon. Gouramis are labyrinth fish. They can breath air with a little lung like organ. You don't feed the fish while they are spawning, so there's not an issue with a lot of waste.

He'll try to get their attention in the 29, but with that much room they'll be able to get away from him.

I'd suggest you just leave them in the 29 for this time and see what they do. You might even catch them in the act.
 
Well, this morning when I checked on them, poor Bullrock's nest looks like it's not doing well. A lot of the bubbles are gone and it floated awway from the corner. I pushed it back, and it looks like he's still trying to build on it, so we'll just have to see. Jake and I were talking about buying a tank simply for spawning and setting that up for them. So, we will keep everyone posted. Nola, how long should we keep them in the tank with out feeding them?
 
We bought a basic 10g today with a glass top to use as our breeder. We added sand to the bottom and placed the banana plant and temple plants into the tank. Then we filled the tank a few inches with water from the 29g. Luckily, we were able to take a cup and scoop out the bubble nest and it remained mostly intact. We suction cupped a plastic plant slightly above the bubble nest, to help 'anchor' it in the corner. At the moment we are waiting for the sand to settle in the tank before we add bullrock.

We'll update and take some photos soon! :)
 
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