The
pearl gourami is, in my opinion, one of the prettiest gouramis.
The male has a deep orange throat and underside, with black spots
peppered all over. He has a long black horizontal line from one
end to the other. The female is slightly less attractive. She has
silvery sides with the peppered spots and horizontal line but lacks
the deep orange coloring. They reach four inches in length, with
the female sometimes being slightly smaller. They are very meek
and get along very well with other species of compatible size, and
unlike lots of the bubblenest builders, the males don't get aggressive
during the spawning process.
I had tried to breed these fish for many months, with no luck. Each
time I would set up a 58 gallon tank with newly conditioned water
and an artificial plant--each time with no luck. The male Just refused
to build a nest. I even tried leaving the pair in for two months
at a time. They were conditioned on plenty of brine shrimp, smelt,
chopped worms, spinach and flaked foods.
But things turned around for me recently when I tried to breed them
again. Again, I filled my 5.5 gallon with newly conditioned water,
but this time instead of artificial plants I added a few sprigs
of hornwort, I purchased at a club auction. To my amazement, within
three hours the male had begun building a nest with bits and pieces
of the hornwort incorporated. The rest of the spawning went the
same as other bubblenest builders--the embrace, the release of eggs,
the retrieval of the eggs, etc. After the spawning was completed,
my female looked exhausted, so I removed her. The male went on about
his work tending his nest and eggs for two days, without a hitch.
In two days the eggs hatched and tiny little gray "hairs"
dangled from the nest; after two or three more days the fry were
free swimming. They were now horizontal and were all over the top
of the tank at the water surface.
The male was now released from his duties for his well earned rest,
and a sponge filter and cover were added to the tank of fry. The
fry are said to be hard to raise, the first two weeks being the
most critical. It seems that the fry are so extremely small that
only the smallest of foods are acceptable --green water and infusoria
until they are big enough for baby brine shrimp. Maybe because of
the sprigs of hornwort and the heavy algae buildup on the glass
my fry have made it through the critical feeding period with few
casualties. My fry are also being fed a solution of egg yolk and
water or babyfood peas and water.
So, through trial and error, I have found that at least my pair
of pearl gouramis prefer it all natural, no artificial ingredients,
when it comes to spawning. |
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