Application of thermocol as nest material for breeding of Blue Gourami, Trichogaster trichopterus.

Abstract

The Blue Gourami (Trichogaster trichopterus) is one of the quite popular ornamental fish having nest building bahaviour. The banana leaves used for stability of bubbles started rotting in water after a few days and polluted the water. To overcome this problem thermocoal sheet was used as an alternate. A group of 5 pairs of fishes were transferred into three separate aquarium (T-1, T-2, T-3) having capacity of 60 Lit. T-1 was provided with thermocoal, T-2 with banana leaves and T-3 was maintained without any substratum. One pair of fish was selected from each aquarium for breeding trial by using the thermocoal and banana leaves as substratum. After chasing activities, male started formation of bubble nest over water surface in T-1. After about 80-85 hrs. of bubble formation, female fish has released eggs under bubble nest which were guarded by male. Fecundity was about 3335 and survival was observed as 70% after 7 days of hatching the eggs. In T-2, color and texture of banana leaves changed. Thus thermocoal sheet was proved as better material to provide stability of bubble nest.