Male Honey Gourami

[Seal36]

I have 3 females and 2 male honey gouramis and 1 of the male gourami has black spots underneath his eyes is this his spawning colours or do the males just turn black when they are reaching sexual maturity. If this is spawning behaviour what else should I look out for as 1 of the females has her black line running down her body from Tom

 

[DreamertK]

Maturation. Once he builds the bubble nest then you know he's in the mood.

 

[Seal36]

So that means I have 1 female and 1 male at sexual maturity does that mean they will automatically pair up or are they fussy with there partners and what are the chances of eggs hatching from Tom

 

[Essjay]

In my experience, honey gouramis don't pair up. Any male will mate with any female he can persuade. The first sign of potential spawning is the male swimming in front of a female with his nose pointing upwards. She'll ignore him at first but then gradually starts to get interested and follow him to his bubble nest. After a few days of the female following then turning away, they eventually spawn by the male wrapping his body round the female and turning her upside down. She expels a few eggs and he fertilises them. They will both be in a sort of stupor for a few seconds. The male comes out of it first; he sucks up all the slowly sinking eggs and spits them into his bubble nest. He will chase the female away till he's got them all, then they'll spawn again. Once the male has enough eggs, he will chase any other fish, including the female, that come within a few inches of his nest. But with other fish in the tank, the chances of the eggs surviving to hatch are slim. While the male is chasing one fish, another will spy its chance to sneak in. Even if the eggs do hatch, once the fry become free swimming, they'll soon be eaten.

 

[Seal36]

Thank you very much for all that information it will be a great help I hope they do have some eggs as it would be the first time I have had gourami eggs. It sounds so different from other fish species breeding from Tom

 

[Essjay]

Not every female will be willing to spawn. Some never give in to the male's advances. And even the ones that eventually do take a bit of persuading. It can be quite amusing watching the progress, from 'go away I'm not interested' though 'what do you want to show me - oh a bubble nest, you don't fool me that easily, I'm off' right up to 'ooh this really is a nice nest, OK then'
The male can get very insistent and may well nip the female's tail. When this has happened with mine, the damage has only been to the very edge of the tail fin and it heals quickly.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I took a video of my pair in the mood. 

 

 

[Seal36]

Ok thank you very much and I hope to see some of this behaviour because when I see my fish acting naturally it makes me feel happy as I know I'm caring for them well enough and when they breed that makes it even better from Tom