Bubble Nests

[spongy]

I introduced 3 paradise fish, 1 male and 2 female into my 180 litre tank nearly 2 months ago.

I went away for the weekend two weeks ago and came back to 2, the male and the larger female, with the 3rd missing, and I mean missing, at first I thought she might have died but I can't find any sight of a body in the tank at all, and believe me, I've tried to find it, the tank is covered and the there is no way she could have jumped out. I'm confused but anyway I digress....

I set up my tank, stocked it and have been enjoying it but Ive decided to go for black fine gravel as a substrate instead of the large coral gravel I have and am soaking a piece of wood to rid it of tannins and waiting for it to sink which is taking ages!

And now I believe the male is building a bubble nest, see here.....

Now what do I do, I don't think the pair have bred, how do I know?

But to change my gravel and rescape I'm going to have to remove the fish, drain and refill whilst they're in a secondary tank for the day.

If I decide to do it and break the nest, will it stress him out too much and kill him?

What do I do? I don't want to cause them any in due stress if I can help it and wanted to do my rescape and painless and stress free as possible but him building a nest I think has put a massive spanner in the works!

 

[goildfishes]

I introduced 3 paradise fish, 1 male and 2 female into my 180 litre tank nearly 2 months ago.

I went away for the weekend two weeks ago and came back to 2, the male and the larger female, with the 3rd missing, and I mean missing, at first I thought she might have died but I can't find any sight of a body in the tank at all, and believe me, I've tried to find it, the tank is covered and the there is no way she could have jumped out. I'm confused but anyway I digress....

I set up my tank, stocked it and have been enjoying it but Ive decided to go for black fine gravel as a substrate instead of the large coral gravel I have and am soaking a piece of wood to rid it of tannins and waiting for it to sink which is taking ages!

And now I believe the male is building a bubble nest, see here.....

Now what do I do, I don't think the pair have bred, how do I know?

But to change my gravel and rescape I'm going to have to remove the fish, drain and refill whilst they're in a secondary tank for the day.

If I decide to do it and break the nest, will it stress him out too much and kill him?

What do I do? I don't want to cause them any in due stress if I can help it and wanted to do my rescape and painless and stress free as possible but him building a nest I think has put a massive spanner in the works!

you'll see little black spots in the eggs that are around about the bubbles or you'll see cloudy bubbles(non fertilised) ,and there realy hardy fish you won't stress him/them much he'll go back to building pretty quick after a change (turn the temp up a degree if you feel he needs help after the change) , i found once my males started building the nests , that was all they done apart from raid the other males nests in the other corners , paradise fish are the original and first 'goldfish' they survived to our shores because they are so hardy .

hope this helps



(can't wait to get my garage/fishhouse finished so i can get some more paradise fish , 1 of my top 3 fish )