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Sparkling Gouramis - They spawned!

Steve Smith

Steve Smith

Member
Joined
19 Jul 2007
Messages
4,412
Location
Wellesbourne, UK.
Just bought a trio of these, though I suspect I have 2 males and 1 female looking at their behaviour! I've kept these before, and even had them breed, though I had no surviving fry as they were in a small community tank. I had spotted these three in my little LFS (Rosedale Aquatics in Whitnash, Warwickshire), and I'd thought they'd be perfect for my Dennerle cube. I've been thinking about what to do with it, and after some inspiration while visiting Matt's house I knew a low tech, slow growing aproach was needed.

Anyway, this is more about the fish than the tank :)

5696882686_987b0b0767_z.jpg


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(more planting required up front... maybe some crypt. parva or something)

Anyone else kept these little beauties? I just love the way they move around the tank. They remind me a little of dwarf puffers in how they're inquisitive, and how they investigate things :lol:
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

My original post about when my last sparklers spawned is here:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2438#p26118

I think they prefer good plant cover. I wanted to give them a nice amount, hence the massive bolbitis! The smaller fish, which I think might be female, keeps checking out the floating plants... Fingers crossed ;) The two which I think are males seem to be flaring at each other and having a bit of a joust. Hopefully they'll calm down - I'd hoped they'd be OK as they've been the only ones in the LFS tank for the last few weeks.
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

Meets certainly are great for inspiration :thumbup:

I am happy to see that you got these fish again. After chatting about them at the meet I added them to my mental list of fish I will keep at some point.

Was it really 2008 when you last had them :wideyed: Time flies!
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

Ahhh so they are what you bought yesterday while cycling :)
Great little fish with loads of personality, very inquisitive.
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

Love 'em! I've kept them a few times in community tanks, but no successful breeding. They live for several years though. They're suposed to make a clicking noise, but I never heard it. I've always been a sucker for fish with iridescent blue on them.

I agree with you, they really deserve a tank to breed properly in - hope to see your results on here before too long.

Mark
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

Hi all,
They are one of my favourite fish. I'd add a floating plant with long trailing roots, these are the preferred nest building sites. Pistia is best, but it might be a bit big for your tank, Limnobium or Ceratopteris are other options.

If you want them to breed now is the perfect time to start conditioning them, mosquito larvae/Daphnia/Grindal worms are all good, they need a very shallow breeding tank (it can be small) and you need to remove the female after spawning. You need to maintain very warm, humid air over the breeding tank, and the fry are absolutely minute, much too small for BBS or Vinegar eels (better than micro-worms, as they swim further up in the water column), you really need a supply of "green water" for the 1st couple of weeks.

If you set up a "Mosquito bucket", (Builders bucket, a pair of tights filled with lawn cuttings, 3/4 filled with rainwater and a cork floated on top, placed in 1/2 shade), you can inoculate it with Daphnia (from the LFS) and you can also add the water (but with no Daphnia or Mosquito larvae), to a jar somewhere sunny and generate your own "green water".

cheers Darrel
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

dw1305 said:
If you set up a "Mosquito bucket", (Builders bucket, a pair of tights filled with lawn cuttings, 3/4 filled with rainwater and a cork floated on top, placed in 1/2 shade), you can inoculate it with Daphnia (from the LFS) and you can also add the water (but with no Daphnia or Mosquito larvae), to a jar somewhere sunny and generate your own "green water".

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...

Haha, I love how highly technically low-tech that is :lol:

BTW Darrel, did you get my response to your email through the BCA forum?

Lovely fish STeve, sorry for thread crashing!
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

Thanks for the information Darrel :) I have some floating plants already, a little Limnobium laevigatum and another which I'm not sure of the name (looks a little like pistia, but the leaves seem to stay the same size as limnobium, and the edges are rounder - it has a pale green leaf with a velvet texture and the larger leaves have the small ridges similar to pistia). I can't remember what it is, as it was a random purchase from Vivarium.

Two of the three have almost certainly paired up. They tend to stay together whilst browsing around the substrate and tend to rub against each other now and then. The one which I think is the male tends to chase off the third fish, which I think is a juvenile male. I'm considering whether to move him to another tank and leave these two too it :lol: I'd like to get him a girl friend too ;)
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

dw1305 said:
You need to maintain very warm, humid air over the breeding tank
Click to expand...

This is so the labyrinth organ can develop properly.
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

Just for the fry (while their labyrinth organ is developing).
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

OK, thanks for the info :) I'm not sure if they'll get separated out to their own tank to be honest (assuming I even get any young). I'll see what happens!
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

I currently have 7 of these in an 80l tank with just shrimp. I've only had them a few weeks and just moved the into their new tank last night. I was planning to have a go at breeding them so thanks for the great info. I can confirm the clicking noise they make, I was watching 2 fish display at each other and they were making a chirping/clicking noise.
Any more pointers on breeding them would be much appreciated.

Regards

Ollie
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

I had a bit of a surprise about an hour ago. I popped into my bedroom on the way out of the front door to get something and naturally stopped and oggled the fish for a few moments. The gouramis all came out as they seem to do now that they've settled in (expecting food no doubt).

I noticed that the larger fish (which I've been calling the female) had some damage to her tail o_O Then, the two that seem to have paired up doubled over together and spawned! :oops: The female popped out a little white sack of what I assume were eggs, which the male popped into his mouth and swam off to the corner of the tank with. It was then that I noticed a bubble nest in the bottom right corner, on the underside of the filter. The male proceeded to insert eggs into the next 8)

I checked a few moments ago and he's camped out in that corner keeping an eye on things :thumbup: I'm not sure what to do now... Ideally it'd be nice to raise the fry but I'm not sure I have the resources to move the other two fish out to another tank. I don't think they'd be happy in my 60cm, and they'd probably feast on any shrimplets in my nano (which I've spotted a berried female in at last).

I think I'm going to leave them too it this time and see what happens. If I can raise some fry, then great... If not, well they'll spawn again, I'm sure :)
 
Re: Sparkling Gouramis

awesome Steve...that happend quickly.... It will be entertaining for you to see how they get on :)
 
Damn. That was super quick. I agree leave them to it for now.

I wish I was more local to you, I'd either led you a tank or take the fry off of you to raise.
 
I've got enough bits to put together another tank, but I need to spend some time this weekend sorting stuff out really. Like, I need to clean out a 2213 and try to find a spray bar (which I don't remember if I have or not).
 
Well, after a couple of hours of trying, I managed to catch and move the young male and the female and they are now in my 60cm community scape. They seem to quite like it in there! They even spend time together now, after the female being quite nasty in the smaller tank.

The other male is happily guarding what are now fry! I can see a small group of maybe 20 or so fry, all hanging out under the bubble nest. The male seems to pluck them and move them back into the safety of the nest if they move to far out.

I'm a bit concerned about feeding them, as I don't have anything at the moment, and infosuria will take time. I think this batch of young may have to fend for themselves, and I'll be more organised next time (who'd of thought I'd have fry within a week!)

Lessons learnt and all :)
 
SteveUK said:
I'm a bit concerned about feeding them, as I don't have anything at the moment, and infosuria will take time.
Click to expand...

I heard you can use powdered baby milk to create infusoria in just a couple of days.
Not sure the details, but might be worth looking into (maybe for future spawns).
 
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