Smoothly floating among the algae of the aquarium, unhurried, peaceful gourami are just those fish, watching which calms and relaxes. In addition, they are brightly colored and will undoubtedly decorate any apartment. Under certain conditions, gourami can please with numerous offspring.
Gourami are considered relatively unpretentious pets. They are kept in fairly spacious aquariums of 40-50 liters. It is very important to create bright lighting that will give the fish the most intense colors. It is necessary to carefully monitor the purity of the water, for this you can install a filter.
The soil should be selected in a dark color: granite chips, small pebbles with pieces of ceramic that will be used for shelters. For the same purpose, it is better to plant aquatic plants thicker.
Gourami from time to time can float to the surface of the water for a portion of fresh air. Leave at least 8 cm free to the edge of the aquarium and cover it with glass.
For reproduction, it is recommended to select females and males of the same species, for example, only marble or only pearl ones. When mixing breeds, you can also get offspring, but most likely it will not be very interesting in color.
Preparing fish for breeding
For breeding, several males and several females are usually chosen, which are previously seated in separate banks for a week and fed with live food. Males can be distinguished by a pointed dorsal fin; in females, it is rounded. A female ready for spawning can be identified by a rounded tummy.
The selected female is transplanted into a spawning grounds - a separate aquarium of 20-30 liters, with water a couple of degrees warmer than usual, without soil, with algae, including floating ones, for example duckweed. After a while, a male is added to it, which soon changes color to a brighter one. For example, pearl gourami will have an orange throat and belly.
Mating and reproduction
The male begins to chase the female, and in such a situation she should have a place to hide. After the race, the male begins to build a nest from air bubbles held together by his saliva and duckweed particles. Then he hugs his girlfriend, squeezing the eggs out of her, and the white eggs falling to the bottom, he immediately picks up and takes them to the nest.
After spawning, the female gourami is usually removed back to the common aquarium, her mission is over. The male watches the nest for some time and returns the eggs that fall out. After a couple of days, fry appear, for which clean water is important, since they have not yet formed a labyrinth respiratory organ. So that the father does not eat his offspring, at this moment he is resettled.
In nature, the female gourami lays up to 1000 eggs, but only the largest and strongest fry that eat their fellows survive.
The fry grow quite quickly, but unevenly, and therefore it is necessary to ensure that the babies of about the same size remain together, otherwise the large ones will eat the small ones. Fry is fed, as a rule, with crustacean nauplii; dry feeds give less successful results.
