Honey gouramis are peaceful. Nevertheless, sooner or later the male starts to herd the female around. If a female really wants to get rid of her spawn, then a female can become pushy and also take on more intense colors.
Such animals are more robust and can live to be 2.5 years and older.
Honey gouramis eat live, frozen and dry food.
The gender differences
Honey gourami male Photo: Andreas Peschke
In males, the chest and abdomen are dark to velvety black in color up to the pelvic fin. Females are more grey-brown and do not have a dark chest or belly.
During courtship, the females show a light longitudinal stripe.
When stressed, the females show the dark, brown to black line down the length of the body like the young.
Females are usually slightly larger than males. Females are wider, especially in the chest and abdomen area. The female’s body appears more wedge-shaped towards the tail when viewed from the side.
Honey gourami female Photo: Andreas Peschke
Males are especially brightly colored during the mating season. Outside of the mating season, they can be inconspicuously colored like females.
If only one pair is kept, the male is usually colored.
Suppressed males take on the coloration of the females. Dominant males shine in the most beautiful colors.
In some breeding forms, the black coloring of the males has been almost completely bred away.
Most of the time, however, it is still black at the edge of the pelvic fin.
Courtship like honey gouramis
During courtship, the male and female seem to play with each other. They nudge each other’s sides near the tail fin and twine, often touching the ground as if standing up. The spectacle lasts about half an hour. Then the animals swim on alone or in pairs. But they don’t touch each other. At some point the game will start again.
Advice on breeding honey gouramis
Trichogaster chuna – Red variant Source: Image on Wikimedia Commons License: CC Attr. SA 3.0 Author: Eevaya
Competitive cannibalism is particularly pronounced in Colisa species. Therefore, a breeding tank should be at least 60 centimeters long. The water level should not be more than 15 centimeters and in any case be significantly lower than in the holding tank.
The temperature should be 2 to 3°C warmer than in the holding tank. The water should be as soft as possible, otherwise too many eggs will die.
The breeding tank should contain a lot of sludge. The tank should be heavily overgrown with plenty of java moss and dense surface plants. Algae growth and dead plant parts are welcome. After some time, a rich microfauna of parameciums, trumpet animals, etc. develops in or on it. This microfauna is a suitable starter food for the young. Daily water changes and dry food, which are often necessary for barbel and tetras, bring only unsatisfactory results for labyrinth fish.
The old animals are always fed heavily with live, frozen and dry food. When hungry, the animals begin to graze on algae. So if they’re not eating algae, they’re well fed.
Once the animals are well fed, a pair is placed in the rearing tank. For breeding purposes, the females must be bulging with food, as with all Colisa species.
Separating the sexes 2 days before putting them together in the rearing tank has a stimulating effect.
After about 3 to 4 days, a foam nest is built. if e.g. B. bittercress floats on the surface, the clutch is often stapled under a leaf.
Instructions for rearing
Honey gourami larva (in the red circle) Photo: Andreas Peschke
Once eggs are in the nest, the male will fiercely defend the nest. Because the female is also chased away from the nest, the female should be removed from the spawning pool.
The larvae are very small and initially only eat infusoria or correspondingly small food.
The biggest problem, especially when using artificial food, is to provide the larvae with enough food density without contaminating the water.
After spawning, the water surface can be carefully sprinkled with some fine dry food to support the development of infusoria.
Liquifry, Sera Micron or JBL Nobofluid are also suitable. Liquifry spoils quickly and needs to be kept in the fridge. An alternative is the infusorial dry granulate Protogen from the company Brustmann. Liquizell is already too big for the first few days.
After about a day the larvae hatch and after another 2 to 3 days the larvae swim freely.
Honey gourami larva (enlarged) Photo: Andreas Peschke
When the young are swimming freely, the male can also be removed from the tank. After about 6 days, the male stops caring for the brood and within a few days eats the larvae, which at this point are still a maximum of 5 millimeters in size.
In the beginning, the larvae swim just under the water surface. To bring food and larvae together, the water level must remain shallow, no more than 15 centimetres, and there must be little aeration.
The young and the food animals always move towards the light. If a small desk lamp is placed on the side of the tank at night, the young will quickly find the food animals at night.
It needs minimal feeding several times a day, about 5 times a day. Some water is exchanged daily.
About a week after free swimming, the first artemia nauplii, microworms and possibly sieved pond food can be fed. Cyclops must not be fed.
3 weeks old honey gourami Photo: Andreas Peschke
The food supply and the variety of food in the first 14 days are fundamental for the further development of the young fish.
After 14 days, the temperature is slowly lowered to normal values. The water level can also be slowly brought back to normal.
Depending on the number of young, small water changes up to a maximum of 20% are carried out daily. To protect the young, a fine-pored filter cartridge is slipped over the end of the filled hose.
Colisa species are somewhat sensitive while the maze is forming. The pool must therefore be well covered so that there are no large temperature differences between the water and the air. After about 2 weeks the labyrinth organ is functioning. The exact time also depends on the feeding.
Some youngsters usually always come through. However, if the young are not sorted, the failure rates are relatively high. The bigger ones seem to like the smaller ones very much.
The nest can be moved carefully.
Young honey gourami Photo: Eva Christov
If the parents are to remain in the spawning tank or spawned in the community tank, the nest can be lined with a shallow dish, e.g. B. a plastic box, carefully skimmed off and placed in a separate rearing tank. The pool, 12 liters are enough at the beginning, needs a heating element. A filter or air stone is initially not necessary. Ground can be omitted. A cover disc should be present from the 3rd to 4th week of life at the latest.
Plants are important B. Riccia, tomentosum or nixweed. The water for the breeding tank is taken from the spawning tank. This also makes sense in the first few days. Only when the young eat Artemia after about 2 to 3 weeks, is it changed more frequently with fresh water.
The right time to move is when there are small black commas in the nest of foam.
Breeding infusoria
Half-rotted blades of grass or leaves that are hanging in the water and have different vegetation can be placed in the breeding tank from a farm pond. However, there is a risk that hydra and planarians will get into the tank.
However, young labyrinth fish from about 1 centimeter in size usually eat hydra and planarians, so that there are usually no losses caused by hydra and planarians.
To get inexpensive infusoria, you can start breeding them in a flower vase with chrysanthemums. Chrysanthemums are unsprayed due to their ingredients. The flower water is not changed. Only the evaporated water is slowly filled up with room-warm water. After two to three days, the best infusoria are ready to be fed.
Filter floss is squeezed out in a container with aquarium water. The broth is inoculated with a few drops of coffee milk. Then the broth is poured into a narrow-necked vessel, a carafe or something similar.
Some cotton wool is stuck into the neck of the vessel and some aquarium water is filled on top. The vessel is placed on the heater. After 48 hours at the latest, a lot of whitish dots should be visible against the light in the upper part of the neck of the bottle. These can be sucked off with a pipette and fed.
Information about the scientific name
The names Colisa sota, Colisa chuna or Trichogaster chuna are used as scientific names for honey gourami.
Honey gouramis were first described by Hamilton and referred to as chuna. Sota is therefore the junior synonym and the precedence therefore applies to chuna.
FAQs – Frequently asked questions about honey gouramis
hat are fire gouramis
Fire gouramis are a red color of honey gouramis. The wild-colored honey gouramis are considered to be much more beautiful than the various cultivated forms.
What does the honey gourami eat
The honey gourami is not picky when it comes to food. If kept in an aquarium, it eats live food, frozen food and dry food. If he mainly gets dry food, you should make sure that live food is also offered again and again.
Regular feeding can be important so that the small threadfish does not overeat.
Which live food is suitable for the honey gourami?
He takes artemia nauplii, for example, small brine shrimp in the primary larval stage.
Shortly after hatching, the nutritional value of these animals is particularly high. Artemia can easily be bred yourself. Breeding Artemia. (Daphnia) can also be on the feeding plan. They are high in fiber, low in fat and contain vitamins A and B2. However, they are more suitable as a supplement to the main feed, for example as a snack. In addition, the honey gruami takes white mosquito larvae, the larvae of the tufted mosquito.
A common, popular live food, they are high in protein, contain fiber and are low in fat. Black mosquito larvae, the larvae of mosquitoes, are also suitable. They are less readily available commercially as live food. Because they are a very high quality feed, they are sometimes given to encourage breeding. However, if you feed them, you should only put as much into the aquarium as will actually be eaten immediately. In this way, the larvae no longer have time to pupate. Now and then and in…