Why isn?t our male pearl gouarmie building a bubble nest?

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Jeremy S

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Jun 26, 2002
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Why isn’t our male pearl gouarmie building a bubble nest?

I have had our male pearl gouarmie in our 75-gallon planted aquarium with a female for over eight months and he still hasn’t started to build a bubble nest. He has plenty of plant matter to make it with, all of the other fish are peaceful and there is hardly any water current. Do you have any suggestions on how to get him to make one?
:confused:
 
First off lets eliminate the obvious. Are you sure it is a pair? Are you sure none of the other fish are bothering him? Do you feed a good varied diet? If you do not do so already you should add some live or frozen food to their diet. What temp are you keeping the tank at? How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change? Have you looked up how to breed these fish? Part of the problem may be the tank. You may have more luck with just the pair in a seperate tank. There are lots of possibilities to consider but you have not supplied very much info to go on. Give us more details.
 
I agree with everything Darkangel said ESPECIALLY the comment regarding the tank. I bred pearls and blues years ago, only after isolating them in a 20 gal. long tank. They also appreciate a darker environment in my experience.
I don't think the size and shape of the tank is as important as the isolation from other fish.
Len
 
First off lets eliminate the obvious. Are you sure it is a pair?
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Yes, I’m sure. The male is golden on his chest and he is larger than the female.

Are you sure none of the other fish are bothering him?
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I have never seen any of the other fish show any aggression toward him.

Do you feed a good varied diet?
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I think so. I feed them six different types of flake food, some frozen food and I just got some live black worms.

What temp are you keeping the tank at?
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I have the heaters set at 78 F. but they are not working very well so at night it gets down to about 74 F. I am going to get
them fixed soon though.

How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?
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I do a 50% water change every week.
 
The temperature needs to be much warmer than that if you want them to breed...try 80-85F...I too have bred gouramis in the past, and had the best luck using a spare 20 gallon tank, filled about 2/3 with water, no filter...floating plants, bare bottom, and secluded(I set it up in a closet).I didnt disturb them at all until the femal laid her eggs, then I removed her....after the eggs hatched, I removed the male, and did daily partial water changes for the fry...which were fed baby brine shrimp, fry flake food, and crushed up blood worms.
 
A 20 gal. would be better, but as I said before the size, for gouramis isn't as important as some of the other factors mentioned here.
Something that I didn't mention previously that Slappy did, is that it is important to remove the female once the spawning has finished. These fish, which are fairly peaceful under normal conditions can get somewhat violent with each other after the encounter, and the eggs are bubbled up into the nest.
Len
 
Key's for me in breeding Blues (which I hear are similar in breeding patterns to pearls) are raising the tamp to a touch over 80 degrees, and making sure they have a still water surface to work with.

The latter I usually accomplish with a plastic blocker between the back of the tank (where the filter and surface agitation is) and the front.

This gives the front of the tank as a nice still area for them to work thier magic in.

And I agree that lower/dim lighting seems to help them feel more at home.
 
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