# Help with Fry



## I_dude (May 9, 2008)

So I put my male gouarmi in with my female gouarmi on Friday in the long shot hope that I could try and breed them.

So the male was cruising around blowing bubbles but the female seemed very shy to his advances and never let him get close.
I kept checking on them to see if there was any progress.
Well all they seemed to do was chase each other around and pretty much destroy the bubble nest.

So I figured oh well nothing is going to happen at this rate. I check them in the morning and well the bubble nest is there but I can't really see inside the bubbles to make out if there were any eggs or anything like that.

I come home this evening and at first I took a look but couldn't really see anything. Then I looked again and lo and behold there is tiny microscopic bug like things swimming around everywhere. That’s when I started panicking.

I read all about breeding the gouarmis but now when it comes to it I have a million and one question. What do I feed them? My plan was to get liqui fry tomorrow but I had no idea that everything would happen so quickly. How much do I feed them? Can they stay the night without any nourishment?

I took out the male and the female from the tank as I didn't want them to eat all the fry.

Any help or pointers would be appreciated. I'm half excited and half scared coz I don’t want the poor lil critters to die


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

Ideally, you should have a few cultures of infusoria going (http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Live Food, Infusoria.htm) but your fry won't die overnight without them. There will probably be a fair number in the tank naturally. What sort of gouramis did you breed?-


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## fishlover93 (Feb 25, 2008)

first don't worry just like anyone its a first time for everything. Second is that you have to put the male back they need his assistance and he won't be eating them. Lastly your fry will still have their egg sac that they will eat for at least a week from then feed them baby brine shrimp or something different according to the species of the gourami!!!


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## I_dude (May 9, 2008)

They were both gold gouarmis.
Well I have a brine shrimp culture going but I can't feed them that coz well they would be too big for them.

As for taking the male out. That one I am confused about.
Some websites say keep him in other say take him out.
Which is it. The fry are free swimming now. Does the male still aerate them with or something?

Let me know so I cna put the male back in if absolutely necessary


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Just leave him out, start some brine cultures and if you have any floating plants and java moss etc. put it in the tank and they will survive off the microscopic thingies they will eat from them.

I've had good luck with Hikari first bites as a first food as well. 

Worst thing to do is make any sudden changes etc., just relax


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## I_dude (May 9, 2008)

Thanks for all the tips dudes.
Ya I think I will keep the male out for now.

Well I had tonnes of floating plants in there even before I put any of the gouarmis in the tank. I had a lot of water sprite and I bought some duck weed coz I figured it would help the male put together a bubble nest.
But come to think of it your right the floating plants would also help with microbes to feed the fry.

You know I almost missed them to begin with they are so tiny.
Well the brine shrimp culture is going but I reckon it will still be a while till the fry are big enough for me to feed them the brine shrimp.

So till then don't do anything right. Don't feed at all.
Oh also should I shut of the filter or keep it running. Its a small aquaclear with the sponge only. I have covered the intake with a pice of panty hose.
It is also placed on the fair side of the tank from the fry so should not ingest any accidentally.

What about all the stories on fungus killing fry. Should I do anything about that.

Thanks again for all your responses


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

To date, I've only bothered saving a single spawning of gouramis (I don't have the space to grow out a million babies), but here is what has worked:

keep the father in the tank. Even after I transfered the fry to a fry saver, the father always stood by under the fry saver to guard his brood, chaing all others away from under and around the fry trap.

Keep lots of moss and other plants so the fry can feed on infurosia that growns in and around the moss/plants.

BBS work well after they are about 2 weeks old. Before that I find that they cannot eat them.

Try to keep the filter to a minimum. With the HOB, raise the water level so that there is not so much surface agitation from the water going into the tank. The fry do not do well with current.

Other than that, just sit back and enjoy watching them grow. The neatest part of the trichogaster trichopterus fry is that the eyespots (black spots) are very very black. And they are carbon copies of their parents from the moment they take on the deep bodied morphology. 

Adults have so far been very peaceful and left the fry alone.

HTH! Good luck with the fry!


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## I_dude (May 9, 2008)

So I came home from work today to take a look at how may fry I had lost.
I have more fry than I had yesterday. Holy smokes.
I guess there were some unhatched eggs yesterday when I took the male out.
Well so there are tonnes of these little comma's swimming around.
The do tend to clump towards the floating leaves so I guess there must be some nourishment there. I have put a plastic lid underneath the hood to help keep the humidity in the tank high. I read this is important for the labyrinth organ. 

Ammekplec what does HTH mean?
Also there aren't any other fish in the fry tank and the surface agitation is quite low.

Thanks


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

HTH = hope that helps!

Yeah, my gouramis made a nest in some floating java moss, and after about 3 or 4 days I must have had at least 500 fry just swimming about. I tried a mesh fry saver, but apparently they are small enough to wiggle through. They mostly congregated around the emersed leaves of anubiases, probably because of the shelter it provided from the current in the tank. I think at this point, they are probably still living off their yolk sacs.

I have also read that about the labyrinth organs, but I have a glass cover anyways so didn't really think much of it.


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