Has anyone...

[gonna_b_no_1]

I wanted to know if anyone has successfully bred Dwarf Blue Gouramis in here as I've decided to give it a second try. 

My first try yeilded only 4 survivors out of 100's of fry. 

I've also decided to chronicle daily events in the tank in a journal of sorts and take pics every few days of the fry.

[Woody]

I have breed Colisa lalia in the past and am presently working with a few labyrinth species. There are two critical stages of development in a labyrinth fry life. The first is providing copious amounts of minute foods, infusoria, for the first two weeks of their lifes.
Infusoria is easy to cultivate but there lies a fine line between overfeeding and underfeeding, and since labyrinth fry are delicate, they do not take to large volume water changes. 5 to 10%  twice a day will suffice.
The second critical stage is when the fry develop their labyrinth organ, the aquarium must be covered, I like to use a sheet of glass and the air above the water must be exactly as the temperature of the water, off a degree or two, most of the fry will perish.
After they pass through this phase, they are no longer delicate and can be raised quite easily.

I hope you will be so kind as to post our daily chronicles so others can learn from your trial and error.

Woody

[gonna_b_no_1]

I can do a daily chronicle with pics (my camera isn't so hot, but i'll try my best) 

As I go along with my daily "diary" of sorts, if you think of anything that I may be doing wrong, or need help with, please pitch in your advice!

October 25th
Cleaned and nuked 10g tank, no substrate, duckweed floating in tank with a new sponge filter. Water parims not tested as of yet. Turned on sponge filter, added media from 2 other filters to add beneficial bacteria.

Started feeding prospective parents frozen bloodworms daily with normal flake feeding. After a guppy gave me a surprise drop, I'm sure that a few guppy fry have disappeared care of gouramis (mine have developed the taste for guppy fry!) from main tank as well.

November 3rd
Added male to 10g tank. Turned off sponge filter. Right away observed male starting on a bubblenest. Lightly feeding flake, and syphoning off leftovers daily. His coloration has intensified and he is quite stunning to look at. He is "challenging" the reflections of himself in the bottom of the tank.

Over next few days I see him trying to build a few bubble nests in different locations on the surface of the water in the tank. He does abandon them. Has finally settled on a corner in the tank for a bubblenest, and seems to be happy with its location.

November 6th
Added female #1. She has a rounded belly that is more plump than female #2. She has also sampled some of those bloodworms daily and I'm pretty sure she's taken a snack or 2 of those newborn guppy fry before I could scoop them out of the main tank. I observed her getting agressive also in the main tank with female #2.

Right away the male started to display for her, and the female swam away and hid beside the sponge filter. Again, I'm feeding sparingly and cleaning up leftovers every day. Male has intensified his bubblenest building and seems more agressive with his reflection on the tank walls and tank bottom.

Water Parims tested and results:

PH: 7.6
No2:.01
ammonia:0
Nitrogen:0
KH:30
GH:100 mg/l
My test kit is: Nutrafin Master Test Kit "mini test"

November 7
Witnessed male becoming extremely protective of his bubblenest and female spent most of the morning hiding. Around 5pm tonight I witnessed the first embrace. As I type this, it is currently just about 6 pm and they are still doing embraces.

NOTE: Inforusia has been cultured and going strong for 2 weeks now. Also have microworm cultures started.

Will perform a tiny water change today to syphon off any debris from the bottom of the tank, using a turkey baster.

Any questions or suggestions?

[PaleoFishGirl]

Ooh, this is so exciting!
I can't wait to hear what happens next.  I'd love to see pictures too, no matter how 'unhot' your camera is

[gonna_b_no_1]

Nov. 7th, 2006

Removed female around 8 pm , returned her to main tank.

Nov 8th

Male has been seriously involved with the eggs and bubblenest.  I have observed him picking up any eggs that have fallen out of the nest, and replacing them into the nest.  He will not eat, and doing a mini-syphon of the bottom of the tank results in my arm being attacked as he is defending his nest.  Quite amusing, although I am pretty sure he's serious

Female #2 has started on her "fattening up" diet and she seems to be getting a rounder belly already.  I will be setting up another 10g tank, with similar set up in 2 to 3 weeks.   Dad will need a little break between the breedings and he'll deserve it!

Around 5 pm tonight I saw my first fry.  Very tiny indeed!  I tried getting pics but they're too small just yet for my camera to pick up!   I'll try again tomorrow, mayhaps with a little sunlight (yeah right!) I might be able to get a pic of one or 2 of them.

[gonna_b_no_1]

Wow!  Sorry for no updates lately, been so busy with sick kids again!  Guess it's that time of year!

Ok, quick run down on events.

Father was removed 2 days ago.  He was certainly reluctant to let those little fry free swim and he was incredible with his efforts, but was slowly running himself ragged.  I took him out and he is sitting in my 33g main tank feeding on flake, bloodworms and anything else he can scarf down.  Quite a hungry guy! 

Fry have grown some, i can see them now without having to seriously strain my eyes.  lol  Feeding inforusia 4-6 times a day, and I've tried putting in a tiny amount of firstbites just to see if they would try to eat it.  I didn't see anyone go for it, so we'll try again in a few days.

Water changes have become quite the challenge...even with a turkey baster.  I have done a few "drip changes" where I use an airline tube, with a small piece of pantyhose on the end to drip out some water.  I replace it with water from the tap, that was dechlorinated prior to going into the frytank.  A bucket, some dechlorinator and a few stubbed toes later, I have safe water for them.  llol

So that is where I am at right now. 

At this point I can say that the only different things that I have done from this time to the first time I attempted to breed these fish was:

I had no duckweed the first time, and this time I do.  The fry seem to thrive so far, and at the size they are at, finding them in the duckweed is challenging.  I do not see any little bodies on the bottom of the tank or on the sponge filter, so I will assume that loss is at a minimum.  Already a better result than the first time. 

The second thing that I did differently was the first time i had an airstone in the frytank, and this time I have a sponge filter. 

So, your opinions on these recent events?