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Chocolate gouramis


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Has anyone bred these guys? They look really cool but I heard they are hard to keep alive but I saw a website about breeding them and wasrerally suprised to hear the female keeps the eggs and fry in her mouth. I thought they'd lay them in a bubble nest like other gouramis.

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yes i have breed them all be it by accident.i had them in a heavily planted tank with discuss.and i didnt no they had breed until i noticed tiny copies of there parents amongst the water sprite floating on top of tank.the sprite gave them great cover which stopped the discuss from seeing them let alone eating them.

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um it was about 5 years ago the temp would have been about 25/26c and i think i had about 3 2 females and a male but cant remember exactly.it was just a comunity tank and didnt have any intentions of breeding them so didnt pay allot of atention to detail.but if you are going to i would highly recoment having water sprite or indian fern floating on the top as it gave them great cover and i suspect they were feeding from any micro organisms that may have been in there cause by the time i noticed them they were of a good size and all i had been feeding was blood worm.

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Sweet thanks. I'd set up they're own breeding tank and all that and have lots of plants. What size tank would it need to be for breeding? would bare bottom or gravel be best. Also what size do they have to be to breed?

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dosnt need to be a big tank but as i say i would have plenty of the water sprite on top as i also think this made the adults feel secure as well.you could do either with or without but i would have some drift wood in there as i think they need sumfin to lay eggs on before she pics them up but not certain as i didnt see them do it.good luck.i actually couldnt beleive my eyes whan i saw i had babies as aparently they are hard to breed but its just a matter of right conditions i think

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Thanks sharkie. Yeah the need all these perfect conditions but they don't seem to hard to get, They need water around 27 and an air temp the same (just put glad wrap or someting over the tank if it doesn't have a lid), the females need to be really conditioned as once they've bred she doesn't eat for 14 days until she has the babies, the PH needs to be 5 - 6.5 so I'll put peat in to lower the ph, needs lots of plants and an open space for the male to breed with her. The only thing I don't know is what is kH and GH?

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i think i fed a bit of whit worm as well which would be good for conditioning the females and when the top of the tank is covered in water sprite it acts as an insulator sealing of the water surface...also there wasnt allot of water movement either.i couldnt tell ya about my ph but see if ya can get some bog wood as i did have a big peice in there which would also help your ph.my tank def wasnt 27 degrees though more like 25 i think

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Yeah theres a few thing I'm going to be breeding / trying to breed next year. I'm hoping to breed Panda Corys, Chocolate Gouramis, Chocolate Australe, different types of killies (maybe) Crowntail Fighters and maybe Badis Badis if I can find some and I'll have my tank with the breeding pair of BNs and platys (who breed on their own :roll: )

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I'm setting up the tank. It's going to have a fairly good sized peice of driftwood in the corner with Xmas moss on the bottom of the front until about 3/4 of the way back. Then it'll have dense plants down the back and peat in the tank if the ph isn't low enough. Does this sound OK? What sort of filteration should I have? I thought a sponge filter but I read that they like strong filteration?

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If Sharkey's setup worked, I would go with that.

Whilst a biotope setup would appear to be the 'ideal', I think that having natural food available for the fry in a well established tank would be the way to go.

I have had success with breeding Sparkling Gourami in a two foot community setup that was densely planted.

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The tanks now got xmas moss all down one end that will hopefully grow to about 5cms tall. Down the other end it has a bit of driftwood that nearly touches the top of the water with smaller rocks and a smaller piece of driftwood with frilled java fern growing on it. Also in between the rocks is frilled and normal java fern and it has a anubis (sp??) and a crypt in there. I'll also add some cabomba and ambulia later on if the xmas moss doesn't grow. The tank holds about 40ltrs. How many pairs do you think I could put in there?

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Make sure the filter is mature before you put the Gourami in, they will die at the drop of a hat, beleive me, I am back down to one female from a group of four. She was the oldest from a different import than the ones that died.

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Yip been going for overy a year now but I did just change most the media and did a big water change so that probably wasn't too good :-? :o:x . I check the water when I get back after christmas to make sure. Is sexing them easy?

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Nope, what colours they show depends on what mood they are in, but I have found the males usually have a slight red tinge along the top and bottom of the tail.

When you startle them, they go quite pale almost instantly and will just float around and look like dead leaves, except for the beady eyes that follow you about!

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