Some Basic Details Please

[rubberdubber]

I have just come home from work tonight and I have a dwarf gourami has, I think, made a nest.
He has pulled out some hair grass and put a bundle about 3 inches across under a large lily pad at the surface in a calm corner of the tank and getting a little bit teritorial.
Will he only do this if she is interested?
How long before egg laying would this be made?
Will it be obvious when or if eggs have been laid and fertilised?
Is it possible to move the eggs or nest to another tank before they hatch?
Sorry for so many questions but I have only delt with live bearers in the past.

 

[sylvia]

Do you see any actual bubbles? He may be prepairing to nest but may not have done so yet.

Male dwarfs will build bubblenests independant of whether or not the female is interested or even independent of whether a female is present at all so this isn't a sign they are going to spawn. He'll guard it for as long as he sees fit if no spawning takes place. Usually this is only for a few days.

The spawning, if it's going to happen at all, would normaly happen within the first day when the nest is made - but it can happen at any point really if the male is still maintaining his nest (usually they give up if the female present isn't interested - or if there is no female at all).

You'll be able to see them spawn quite obviously if you keep an eye out as it's not at all descrete The male raps his body around the female under the nest and he'll fertilise her eggs as she releases them and then collect any that have floated away or have sunk to the bottom. They'll usually repeat this many times.


Whether you'll be able to see the eggs is a different matter - it depends a lot on where they are as they are small and can be difficult to spot. You'll be able to see the fry quite clearly when they hatch though (which takes about a day depending on tank temperature).

It isn't possible to mvoe the eggs out. If you really want to breed gouramies, read up on them a bit and set up an appropriate breeding tank as the male has to be there to take care of the eggs and fry until the fry are free swimming.

BTW - if you want to see what all the stages look like, I reccomend you check out the betta forum and search for bubblenests etc as there are many threads on this there (bettas are a species of gourami so have very similar breeding habits to dwarf gouramies). You should also search through this section as there are occasionaly pictures and there are plenty of threads on breeding.

 

[rubberdubber]

Thank you for a good plain description, other info on other sites I have looked at only seem to glide over the basics.
I think I will give it the weekend and see what happens, water change due then.
no bubbles visible yet.
As I have a fair amount of other fish in this tank I dont think any fry would survive,
See what happens this time and then may try them in another tank in the future.