Zezmo
Aquarium Advice Addict
I had a nice little surprise in my tank last Friday. I was opening the cover to look at some plants, and I saw a single fry swim by. I grabbed my turkey baster (for fish only 
) and plopped him into my "hanging hospital". It was so tiny, it still had the yolk sac in its belly. I wasn't sure what kind of fish it was exactly. I looked all around that side of the tank, and from all the sides... I didn't see any others. I figured the rest of the babies were already lunch.
Now about 2 weeks ago I floated some pieces of Pennywort on top of a nice grove of Ludwigia to let them grow out a bit before planting. These had grown to a nice little jungle.
So I was watching my tank and noticed that my two older Male Dwarf Gouramis were looking beat down and on the bottom of the tank. In fact I noticed that most of the fish were in groups to either side or the bottom. My third Dwarf Gourami male, who I figured was way to young to nest or mate, is defending the middle of the tank like crazy. I see him hiding behind the jungle, and any fish that comes near is chased off.... lol... this little guy is keeping the whole tank at bay.
I figure I better do something about this. I go and remove the cover on that half of the tank, and was blown away. The tops of all of the Pennywort leaves have little baby Gouramis in them. In the center of all that is a nice bubble nest. I sucked out little babies for over an hour. In all I rescued at least 200 of these little guys. I have 4 breeding females in that tank. With this many babies, they are most likely from more than one of the females. Then I had to move the plants nest etc, to de-aggro things a bit. The whole center of the tank has been "relandscaped" The tank is peaceful again. 
I have two babies (from my Flame male) that I hatched from eggs about a month ago in another tank. That tank has a nice huge mop of java moss that is home to a nice colony of copepods (daphnia). I will feed the new babies on micro foods for a few days, then I will xfer them to the other tank, and put those two in my ten gallon, that only has snails, tons of clippings, and the rest of that mop of java moss.
Getting my Gouramis to breed is one of the main things I am always trying to make happen in this tank. There are females in there of all types of Dwarf Gourami. So, I am pretty happy about having gotten so many fry and the possibility they may be of several different color variations.
) and plopped him into my "hanging hospital". It was so tiny, it still had the yolk sac in its belly. I wasn't sure what kind of fish it was exactly. I looked all around that side of the tank, and from all the sides... I didn't see any others. I figured the rest of the babies were already lunch.Now about 2 weeks ago I floated some pieces of Pennywort on top of a nice grove of Ludwigia to let them grow out a bit before planting. These had grown to a nice little jungle.
So I was watching my tank and noticed that my two older Male Dwarf Gouramis were looking beat down and on the bottom of the tank. In fact I noticed that most of the fish were in groups to either side or the bottom. My third Dwarf Gourami male, who I figured was way to young to nest or mate, is defending the middle of the tank like crazy. I see him hiding behind the jungle, and any fish that comes near is chased off.... lol... this little guy is keeping the whole tank at bay.
I figure I better do something about this. I go and remove the cover on that half of the tank, and was blown away. The tops of all of the Pennywort leaves have little baby Gouramis in them. In the center of all that is a nice bubble nest. I sucked out little babies for over an hour. In all I rescued at least 200 of these little guys. I have 4 breeding females in that tank. With this many babies, they are most likely from more than one of the females. Then I had to move the plants nest etc, to de-aggro things a bit. The whole center of the tank has been "relandscaped"
The tank is peaceful again. I have two babies (from my Flame male) that I hatched from eggs about a month ago in another tank. That tank has a nice huge mop of java moss that is home to a nice colony of copepods (daphnia). I will feed the new babies on micro foods for a few days, then I will xfer them to the other tank, and put those two in my ten gallon, that only has snails, tons of clippings, and the rest of that mop of java moss.
Getting my Gouramis to breed is one of the main things I am always trying to make happen in this tank. There are females in there of all types of Dwarf Gourami. So, I am pretty happy about having gotten so many fry and the possibility they may be of several different color variations.
)
