Are there eggs in the nest??? 10 POINTS FOR BEST ANSWER!!

Question

I have a female and male dwarf gourami in a separate breeding tank, first time breeder, and I saw the male watching the nest very intently. Does this mean there are eggs in the bubble nest?? But he is still chasing the female around they way he did when he wanted to breed?? Does this mean that maybe they only did one batch and he is trying to go back for another batch, but also watching the nest in between chases??? Or does this mean he is trying to keep the female away from the nest?? The female still looks plump with eggs, or does it take them a while to look like there is no eggs inside of them? I need a bunch of help!!! TEN POINTS FOR BEST ANSWER!!

Answer 1

the reasonable answer to this problem is that the female is holding the eggs past the due date. and the male is being impatient and trying to tempt the female 2 let the eggs out into the bubble nest.

Answer 2

yea he is proteching the nest and mollies only have about 5-10 babies

Answer 3

Better remove the mother first right after spawning.

Then when the babies appear, remove the father.

Leaving the mother in the breeder tank is distracting the male. That is why you should move her back to the community tank or another breeder tank if you think she still has eggs.

The male may or may not have fertilized the eggs yet, which is why you need to leave him in until babies start to hatch.

Answer 4

You can't see the eggs? They're little opaque balls.

And he may just be inspecting his nest. The female should de-puff herself right after dropping the eggs - obviously, because that's what's making her bloated - and the male should be picking up the eggs and spitting them into the nest.

And congrats on the mollie! I know how you feel...I was unhappy when my guppy babies got eaten.

Answer 5

1.  "Does this mean there are eggs in the bubble nest??"

If you didn't see the actual spawn, I don't know how to exactly say what to look for.  Basically Gourami breed in the same way that Betta's do since they are both bubble nest builders.  What you will see if you see them spawn is, once the nest is up and they are ready, the male will wrap his body around the female to coax her to lay eggs.  As the eggs are laid, he fertilizes them right away, picks them up and stores them in the nest.

Since I've never actually gotten any of my Gourami to breed, I don't know what to tell you in terms of what to look for when they are done, I only know the process which occurs.

2.  "But he is still chasing the female around they way he did when he wanted to breed??"

Well males will do this.  Much the same way my African cichlid males still hound and chase females even after a successful spawn is done and she's brooding the eggs in her mouth, males still harass and chase females on sight.  I'm convinced that a male does not have the ability to recognize that a female has already spawned.  I don't find it unusual.  Hard to say but basically, yeah, he's going to chase her on sight.  Pretty much treat this like Betta breeding and remove the female after laying eggs.  If she's not receptive to the male and continues to avoid or hide, odds are either she did lay the eggs, or she's not ready yet and I'd remove her back to the main tank.

3.  "Does this mean that maybe they only did one batch and he is trying to go back for another batch, but also watching the nest in between chases???"  

Nope just like I was saying above, I think the male is just going to go after her on sight because he sees her.  I don't have any scientific proof of that, just know from what I see in my Africans.  I'd expect as long as they are in the breeding tank and the nest is up, he's going to after her for eggs on sight.

4.  "Or does this mean he is trying to keep the female away from the nest?? "

It is a little of that as well.  The Gourami just like a Betta, will chase anything away from that nest, even if the other fish is bigger then it.  One thing about bubble nest breeders is the males are outstanding guardians of their nest without fear.  This is also a big reason why the need to remove the female after a successful spawn is high too.  

5.  "The female still looks plump with eggs, or does it take them a while to look like there is no eggs inside of them? I need a bunch of help!!"

I think you're doing fine.  Many first or even second times around may not generate success.  I can tell you when I got my African cichlids, I just couldn't wait for them to breed and when I finally did spot a female holding eggs in her mouth, bang she ended up swallowing them because it was her first time.  It's not a bad omen or a bad thing if things just don't work out the first few times.  

Female Gourami in general have this type of appearence though.  That's one of the ways to tell you have a female.  She will have a shorter rounded dorsal fin and also look like she swallowed a golf ball in her mid section.

She may or may not be full of eggs, but usually, it takes a couple weeks on the proper diet to get them ready to go.  When the female is being prepared to breed, keep her on a high protein diet of live foods, using the Brine Shrimp or Bloodworms I mentioned in the other question.  It will not hurt to feed the male the same foods either.  Building a nest is no easy task, and he could use the extra energy from it.

6.  "Also my mollie just had her babies!! But she had them in the community tank, and I only found 5 :(..... Oh well!! It's still something!!!"

Mollies are live bearers and thus will eat their own offspring.  I know that sounds cruel or sick but they do it.  An advantage though to this, is your live bearers will continually spit babies out almost on a cycle, so this won't be just the first time.  For live bearers, look for a gravid spot in their undersection, that is very dark and black looking.  As they progress towards time to deliver, you might even see the eyes of the fry before they are let loose.

To get fry from live bearers, usually you need to isolate the female when near time to deliver in a breeding net or trap, then take her out right away as she will eat her own babies.  Another thing you might do if you don't want or have a net or trap, is add in some "breeding grass"  It can be artificial stuff or a heavy clump of java moss/fern.  Fry tend from live bearers can use this as cover until they grow large enough not to be eaten.

Answer 6

He is defending the nest.When there are eggs in a bubble nest the male

will protect them.Until they hatch the male will protect the

bubble nest.So it will take a while.  

Answer 7

yes there are eggs he defend the nest until his children are big enough