Honey Gourami breeding

[jacksdad]

Hi, My Honey Gourami male has been in full colour for a few weeks, he's been building bubble nests ever since, but today I've noticed a really dense clump of bubbles, and he won't budge from it!
Do they lay eggs in the nest? not sure whats going on, he's sat as in the pic, and the female is chasing every other fish away from the floating plants where the nest is

[plankton]

They spawn outside of the nest, the male then collects the eggs and puts one in each bubble.
Fingers crossed for you, they are notoriously difficult to raise in the aquarium.
When I had them they spawned, but nothing came of it.

[jacksdad]

Cheers pal, I've just had a look online: it sounds a bit complicated to breed them!
I'm sure there's eggs in that bubble, its full of dense white bits and not just air bubbles, and the male is behaving exactly how the experts say
Is there anything I can do, like putting the bubble nest in a breeding tank that sits inside the main tank? I think the best option is to leave them alone, they do survive in the wild without our help, but having babies would be amazing

[Ric]

Leave them be, I'd say. They do exhibit some parental care and should be allowed to do that imho. Once any fry start swimming then you come in, if you want to raise them, either by moving them into a grow on tank or moving all your other fish out into another tank.

[Si4geckos]

When mine bred he collected the eggs/ babies and spat them into little protective bubble. They're black not white if they have babies in them. When they hatched I removed them to a separate tank and raised them in there. Had a lot of die offs. Started off with loads, but only a couple ever made it back into the community tank. Make sure there's virtually no surface movement/ flow to help him make the nest. I used to wreck his nest every week at water change day. Only had one successful spawn then sadly one of the pair died so could never give it another chance. Here's some vids...
They are flipping tiny fry!
15 days old..
The 2 that made it...
Hope that helps.

[jacksdad]

Great pics Si!
Sadly the bubble nest has vanished, as have all the others he made, and he's out in the open, well away from the floating plants he always stayed in. Plus his breeding colours have toned down
I did notice a Ramshorn snail right next to the nest shown: do they eat nests/eggs etc?

[Si4geckos]

No idea on the snails. My male rebuilt the nest within 2/3 days of water changes. breeding mode and colours can change by the hour. As long as there surface is fairly still, he’ll rebuild it. Mines nest used to be about 1 square foot of surface area. He went big!