One of the simplest toys to make is a ball. All this requires is some of those leftover odd or holey socks that seem to accumulate in most households. You can make a ball of any size depending on the number of socks you use. These balls are soft so can be used indoors and out. They can also be thrown in the washer and dryer. If your dog likes to chew on them till they’re shredded, you can make more in just a few minutes.

For a basic Sock Ball, use 3 or 4 socks:

• Take your longest sock with the least number of holes for the base
• Roll and stuff the other socks inside
• Tie a firm knot in the base sock above the stuffed area
• Double the end of your base sock back over the entire ball
• Tie another knot and double the remaining end back over the ball
• Repeat until you run out of sock
• Trim off the remaining end

For a bigger ball, use as wide and long a sock as possible for the base and add more socks for the stuffing.

If you want a ball with a handle on it so you can throw it further or play tug-o’-war, make a Sock Swing Ball using 4 or more socks:

• Use your two longest socks for the base
• Roll and stuff the other socks inside
• Tie a knot in the base socks above the stuff area

That’s all there is to it! Happy playing!

Jo and Stan have been playing with dogs ever since childhood. They are enjoying making things for their current dog, Comet, who may be a purebred red-and-black Shepherd, although his parentage is unknown.

For more low-cost ideas, visit their website at http://www.make-and-build-dog-stuff.com

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This article (which will continue to grow with information) is informational about different aquarium (and pond) treatments. I give the gram negative or gram positive applications where they apply. Many aquarium antibiotics and chemical treatments are explained.

When you have fish that are sick (bacterial, fungal, protozoan, or other parasites), you want to try and isolate them in a hospital aquarium whenever possible. Regular water changes before each treatment allow for a more effective treatment, especially when treated in the display aquarium. Sponge filters work well in hospital aquariums. Remember to remove carbon, as carbon will remove many medications. Also not that silicone in the aquarium will absorb malachite green, methylene blue, and copper sulfate. Most corals (crushed and otherwise), and ceramic decorations will also absorb medications such as malachite green, methylene blue, and copper sulfate.

TRIPLE SULFA (Sulfamerazine, Sulfamethazine, Sulfathiazole):

USE: Treatment of gram-negative bacterial infections, fin and tail rot, mouth fungus and collapsed fins, columnaris. DOSAGE: 250 mg per 10 gallons every 24 hours with a 25% water change before each treatment. Treat for a minimum of 10 days.

TETRACYCLINE HYDROCHLORIDE:

USE: Treatment of bacterial infections, both gram-positive and gram-negative infections such as fin and tail rot (split, ragged and deteriorating fin and/or tail), Popeye (protruding eyes, may be cloudy or hazy), gill disease (swollen, discolored gills, gasping for air and a decrease in activity) and secondary infections. It interferes with the production of proteins that the bacteria need to multiply and divide (bacteriostatic). Tetracycline Hydrochloride mode of action is as a protein synthesis inhibitor via an aminoacyl-tRNA binding mechanism to the 30S subunit. Mode of resistance is the loss of cell wall permeability. DOSAGE: 250- 500 mg per 20 gallons of water. Every 24 hours with a 25% water change before each treatment. This product will not work in water with a ph above 7.5- NOT FOR MARINE USE!

QUININE SUFATE:

USE: Resistant strains of Ich (especially on scale less fish). Protozoan, sliminess of the skin and Rams disease (whirling disease). Also good for resistant strains of Hexamita when combined with Metronidazole. DOSAGE : 250 mg per 10 gallons of water. Once a day for 4-5 days. Do a 25% water change before each treatment.

OXYTETRACYCLINE HYDROCHLORIDE: USE: Gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Marine ulcer disease, cold water disease, bacterial hemorrhagic septicemia and mouth fungus. DOSAGE: 250- 500 mg teaspoon per 20 gallons every 24 hours with a 50% water change before each treatment. This antibiotic is best used mixed in with food, especially if your ph is above 8.0..

NITROFURAZONE:

USE: Bactericidal for many gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria causing disease in fresh water and marine fishes. This antibacterial is effective for control of Aeromonas, Vibrio and related species. Nitrofurazone is particularly useful for control of minor topical skin infections of marine fishes that have not become systemic. Effective against marine ulcer disease and protozoan. Also useful in treating furunculosis found in Koi. Serious adverse events related to nitrofurans are very rare. Acquired resistance of bacteria to nitrofurans during therapy has been rare and has not appeared on a significant scale in over 50 years of use. Do not use in the presence of invertebrates. DOSAGE: 250- 500 mg per 20 gallons. Treat every 24 hours with a 50% water change before each treatment. Treat for 10 days. NEOMYCIN SULFATE: USE: Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas- Red spots or streaks on body or fins of fish.) and tuberculosis; gram-positive, and possibly mycobacterium. Works well in freshwater or saltwater aquariums. DOSAGE: 250 mg per 10 gallons of water. Treat every 24 hours with a 25% water change before each treatment. Treat for 10 days. For tuberculosis, use for up to 30 days.

METRONIDAZOLE:

USE: Hole in the head disease (hexamita), chilodonella, salt water ich, bloat.

DOSAGE: 250-500 mg per 20 gallons. Treat every 24 hours with a 25% water change before each treatment. Treat for 10 days.

KANAMYCIN SULFATE;

USE: It is used to treat many sensitive gramnegative and some grampositive bacteria. Works especially well in salt water aquariums. Works well combined with Nitrofurazone for flexibacter (columnaris). Kanamycin sulfate appears to prevent bacteria from making their cell walls, so the cells die.

DOSAGE: 250-500 mg per 20 gallons. Treat every 48 hours with a 25% water change before each treatment. Treat for 10 days.

ERYTHROMYCIN:

USE: Fin and tail rot, kidney disease, pop eye. Most gram-positive and some gram negative bacteria and fungus. Black Molly disease. DOSAGE: 250- 500 mg per 20 gallons every 24 hours with a 25% water change before each treatment. Treat for 10 days.

ISONIAZID 300 mg: USE: Treatment for tuberculosis in susceptible fish such as Discus. Can be combined with kanamycin. DOSAGE: 1 tablet per 20 gallons, every other day for 14- 30 days

METHYLENE BLUE (Zinc Free) 2.303% :

USE: Fungus on eggs, Ich, fungus and some bacteria. Effective in gill disease. Transports oxygen. Some protozoa, sliminess of the skin and oodinium. Great for use as a 30 minute dip at double dose. DOSAGE: 1 teaspoon of a 2.303% solution per 10 gallons every other day for 10 days with water changes before each treatment. BEST USED IN A HOSPITAL TANK. Methylene blue can destroy nitrifying bacteria and plants in the display aquarium. ACRIFLAVIN 3.84% solution: USE: For treatment of bacterial infections such as mouth fungus, salt water Ich, fin and tail rot, fungus, saproglenia, skin parasites, oodinium (velvet), sliminess of skin. DOSAGE: 1 teaspoon of a 3.84% solution per 10 gallons every other day for 10 days. Combines well with copper sulfate and malachite green.

MALACHITE GREEN;

USE: For treatment and control of various external parasites of freshwater and marine fishes. When used as directed the medication will control or prevent the following common protozoan parasites: Ichthyophthinus (freshwater Ich), Costra, Chilodonella, Ambiphyra, Cryptocaryon (marine Ich), Epistylis, Oodinium and Trichodina. Malachite Green is also effective against common external fungal infections of fishes and eggs which include Achlya and Saprolegnia. DOSAGE: 1 teaspoon of a 0.038% solution per 10 gallons every other day for 10-14 days. Or 1 drop of .50% solution per gallon every other day for 10- 14 days. 25% water changes are recommended before each dose. Use half dose for scale-less and delicate fish such as Clown Loaches and Neon Tetras. Double dose for marine aquariums. Note; malachite green is more toxic at higher ph

FORMALIN (3% formaldehyde):

USE: For treatment and control of the diseases caused by fungi, protozoan and monogenetic trematodes of freshwater and marine aquarium fishes. Formalin will control or help prevent diseases of fishes caused by the following disease organisms: Ichthyophthirius (freshwater ich), Costia, Chilodonella, Ambiphyra, Cryptocaryon (marine ich), Epistylis, Oodinium, Amyloodinium, and Trichodina. DOSAGE: 1 teaspoon of a 3% solution per 10 gallons every other day for 10 days. Combines well with malachite green.

COPPER SULFATE: USE: For treatment freshwater and marine ich, Oodinium, external parasites, fungus and even algae. Very effective when used properly and carefully. DOSAGE: Treat according to your solution to bring your copper level to .15 -.20 ppm. Sequestered Copper (often called chelated, but that is incorrect, chelated means inactivated) sulfate works best (citric acid help achieve this). Soluble copper salts work well in freshwater only. Do use with snails and other invertebrates, do not use in reef aquariums, and note; when uses as an algaecide, the copper is absorbed by the algae then released when it dies. Removal of sequestered copper can be difficult, only EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acidic Acid) and water changes remove it, NOT carbon.

By Carl Strohmeyer

http://aquarium-medictions.blogspot.com/

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/

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Anglerfishes are famous for their unusual predatory technique. Their first spine have been developed into a fishing pole with a little bate in the end. The fishing pole is actually named illicium and the bate is named esca. The esca is a fleshy growth found at the end of the illicium. When a predatory fish notices the esca, it thinks that it is a suitable prey. It swims close to the esca, and is rapidly overtaken by the Anglerfish before it gets a change to swallow the esca.

There are more than 200 known species of Anglerfish in the world, and more might be found in the future since a lot of the Angler fish species inhabit great depths far down in the ocean where humans and their research equipment seldom venture. The Anglefish species are not contained in any special family or genera, they are instead spread out over several different families. They do however belong to the same order; Lophiiformes. (The order of the bony fishes.)

Angel fish species are famous for their capability to kill and consume prey that is much larger than them selves. The ambush effect makes it possible for Angelfishes to kill large prey and their adaptable body makes it possible for them to swallow the catch. Their jaws can be distended to accommodate huge prey and their thin and flexible bones make their stomach larger. The stomach of an Angler fish is very stretchy.

As mentioned above, a lot of the Anglerfish species dwell far down in the ocean. They inhabit aphotic zones to where the suns light can not penetrate. A normal esca is therefore invisible. The deep living Angler fish species have solved this by entering a symbiotic relationship with a certain type of bacteria than produce light. The bacteria colonise the esca and make it glow in the dark, an example of so called bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is a common feature in deep sea living organisms and other predatory fishes in the aphotic zone will therefore assume that the small esca is a suitable prey. The rest of the Angler fish is dark and can not be detected in the aphotic environment. The light from the esca is not strong enough to illuminate the body of the fish, nor is the light from other bioluminescent organisms. The Angler fish can therefore stay completely hidden and ambush the unsuspecting predatory fish.

Deep sea Angler fish have developed an unusual method of reproduction. Once a male Anglerfish finds a female Anglerfish, he will never leave her. He attaches himself to her body using his sharp teeth and produces an enzyme that gradually allows him access to her blood stream. The two fishes will gradually melt together and the male will not hunt, he will get all the nutrition that he needs from the female Anglerfish. When she is ready to ovulate, the hormone levels in her blood will make the male produce sperm than can fertilize the eggs. In order for this method to be successful, the female Anglerfishes are much larger than the male. When the males have attached themselves to a female, they will actually deteriorate even further. One of the largest found female Anglerfishes was bigger than one yard (more than 90 centimeters). Some female Anglerfishes will allow several males to attach themselves to her.

Read more about Angler fish And learn the answer to the question How big is a Angler fish

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Thanks to Disneys Motion Picture Finding Nemo, almost everybody knows about clownfish since they introduced Nemo to the world.

Clownfish, or Anemonefishes, from the family of Pomacentridae, are one of the easiest tropical marine aquarium fish to breed. Clownfish regularly lay eggs in aquariums. They have pretty large eggs and larvae, and since the larvae easily eats cultured live foods, raising them is somewhat simpler then it tis with many other marine species..

You need to get a pair if you want to breed clownfish and you need to sex the fish. And thats a quite an interesting part believe it or not, clownfish are all born as males! When they are adults, the largest and the most dominant fish of the group will undergo a sex change, and become a female. The second largest usually becomes the breeding male, while all the other fish remains juveniles and gender-neutral. If the breeding female disappears, the breeding male will change to a female, and so on. Buying an established pair maybe a reasonable way to go, but it is often better to have a group of juveniles growing up together. If you choose to buy a pair you should look for a pair that goes around together. Sometimes you can be lucky enough to get a pair already spawning. Anyhow, establishing an adult pair can be a little tricky; and you need to keep your eyes on them to ensure that the female doesn’t kill the male.

The next thing is about setting up the tank. The tank should be large enough, approximately 200 liters for the breeding pair. It is better to let the pair be alone in an aquarium when trying to spawn clownfish.

The rest of the aquarium should be decorated with a nice anemone, a few live rocks, and other rocky substance with a vertical surface, a layer of coral sand on the bottom, bright lighting, good filtration, and protein skimmer. The aquarium and your clownfish should be stressed free which means no aggressive tank mates and good water quality. As for the feeding, clownfish need a mixed diet of fresh raw seafood and vegetable. A good diet includes prawns, mussels, and squid. It is best to feed small bits at regular periods.

Spanning can begin 1 to 12 months after the fish have settled into their new home. When the fish are ready to spawn, they become very aggressive. The male clownfish will dance up and down in front of the female (also known as clownfish waggle). They will also start to clean their selected rock by robustly biting it. The spawning itself usually occurs in the afternoon or early evening. Once the spawning is complete (within several hours) the male takes on responsibility for attending them, whereas the female acts as protector of the eggs and supervisor of her male.

The spawning is likely to be occurred again at intervals of 12 to 18 days. The eggs should be left in their care and not removed, except if the parents are known to be egg-eaters. At first, the eggs are a bright orange color, which after a several days diminishes and the eyes appear. Hatching usually takes from 6 to 15 days, depending on the temperature. The most critical stage of the fry is the stage they undergoes in the first 10 days of their larvae span. If you can get your fry to survive this period the rest of their raising should be more easy.

About The Author
William Berg has over 20 years of aquarium experince and runs the website http://www.aquaticcommunity.com and is also written the texts on http://www.clownloach.info.

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Well, of course there is no guarantee that the fish you see, you are interested in (and you are going to buy) is totally healthy. A Fish can appear as healthy as it could be but in fact it has invisible inner problems. There are many ways, many things you should seek out to determine if a fish is healthy.

And here’s a list of some:

Firstly, look for physical characteristics of good health. A healthy fish should have bright body color, not pale or dull. However darker or patchy coloration may be an indicator of stress and not of bad health. Before you buy a fish, find out how it should look under normal conditions. No open sores, boils, ulcers, peeling scales or blemishes. No visible parasites, such as tiny white crystals that look like salt or tiny black nodules that look like blackheads. There are also viruses, like the Lymphocystis (cauliflower-like growths on the edge of fins). Be sure to examine the fish before buying it.

Eyes should be clear, not cloudy or popping out of the sockets. Fins are erect, especially the top fin (dorsal). Buckled fins can mean trouble. No ragged, torn or ripped fins. All of them should be intact.

Scales are flat and smooth, stomach is well rounded, girth of the entire body is of normal size, not bloated or sunken. Visible fish waste should be dark in color, not pale.

You should also examine their behavior! Healthy fish should breathe normally, not guzzling for air or hanging around the top of the tank where its mouth kissing the top of the water. Compare the gill movement of a fish with other fish in the tank. Extremely rapid gill movement may be a sign of stress.

The fish should interact well with another fish, as they pass each other, moving out, etc. Healthy fish should swim in a horizontal motion (not with its head up or down with a few exceptions) throughout the aquarium—not just creeping around the corners or hiding all the time. Dont pick a fish that allows itself to be bullied or likes to bully others! Spend some time watching the fish you’re interested in buying maybe a good advice. Sometimes you’ll see things you didn’t notice right away. Watch how it behaves for a while.

Only buy fish that eat well! If possible watch them being fed, as this is very important. You wont have a wonderfully beautiful fish that only lasts a day, right?

It would be wise too to check fish prices. Unusually cheap price should be questioned, as there are some dangerous yet awfully cheap methods to caught fish today, like using cyanide and drugs. Cheap prices dont have to mean poor quality.

And make sure that the fish be caught with two nets. Thats the best, since using one net will usually only result in a crazy chase around the tank, making the fish extremely stressed.

About The Author
William Berg has over 20 years of aquarium experince and has written this article for http://www.aqaticcommunity.com where you can find information about all kinds of aquarium related issues. Ask your aquarium questions on http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/forums.html.

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Theres a horse show across the state in a few weeks, and youre planning on being there with your horses. However, its been awhile since you last pulled a horse trailer, and youre a little concerned about your trailering skills. After all, you want to arrive at your destination safely, with the horses as calm and relaxed as possible.

Guiding a loaded horse trailer down a country road or highway requires practical experience and know-how. Theres very little room for error. What do you do to ensure a safe, uneventful journey?

How to Ensure Safe Trailering

If youre out of practice, or if youve never towed a trailer before, obtaining adequate personal experience prior to the actual event is of the utmost importance. Just as if you were learning to drive for the first time, you should begin by practicing basic driving skills before getting out in traffic with the trailer.

The more experienced you become, the more prepared you will be for anything that may potentially happen. With more confidence and a higher level of awareness and preparedness, you should be better able to handle any unexpected situation that comes along.

Find a level field or a parking lot in which to practice. Mark your course with several highway cones, then, set out to work on the following driving skills:

Ready for the Highway

After youve practiced all the basic driving skills while pulling your horse trailer and you feel confident in your ability to handle the rig safely, youre ready to test your skills out on the road.

Try towing your trailer for short distances, at first. Make sure that you feel comfortable with turning corners in traffic, with backing your trailer, with parking on a grade, and with being able to stop your trailer quickly (should the need arise). Once you are confident in your towing abilities, youre ready to travel any distance with your horses.

Just remember to always be alert when out on the roads. Drive defensively and be prepared for any possible situation.

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Theres a horse show across the state in a few weeks, and youre planning on being there with your horses. However, its been awhile since you last pulled a horse trailer, and youre a little concerned about your trailering skills. After all, you want to arrive at your destination safely, with the horses as calm and relaxed as possible.

Guiding a loaded horse trailer down a country road or highway requires practical experience and know-how. Theres very little room for error. What do you do to ensure a safe, uneventful journey?

How to Ensure Safe Trailering

If youre out of practice, or if youve never towed a trailer before, obtaining adequate personal experience prior to the actual event is of the utmost importance. Just as if you were learning to drive for the first time, you should begin by practicing basic driving skills before getting out in traffic with the trailer.

The more experienced you become, the more prepared you will be for anything that may potentially happen. With more confidence and a higher level of awareness and preparedness, you should be better able to handle any unexpected situation that comes along.

Find a level field or a parking lot in which to practice. Mark your course with several highway cones, then, set out to work on the following driving skills:

Ready for the Highway

After youve practiced all the basic driving skills while pulling your horse trailer and you feel confident in your ability to handle the rig safely, youre ready to test your skills out on the road.

Try towing your trailer for short distances, at first. Make sure that you feel comfortable with turning corners in traffic, with backing your trailer, with parking on a grade, and with being able to stop your trailer quickly (should the need arise). Once you are confident in your towing abilities, youre ready to travel any distance with your horses.

Just remember to always be alert when out on the roads. Drive defensively and be prepared for any possible situation.

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More and more horse enthusiasts who are looking to take their passion to the next level are nowadays relying on online, state of the art equine websites to fulfill their needs. Thanks to the wide range of benefits they offer to those that are horse passionate, equine websites have become very popular on the World Wide Web, attracting increasingly larger numbers of visitors and gaining a lot of positive feedback from registered members. Solid equine websites address to an extended category of people, brought together by common interests, hobbies and passions.

First of all, many classified equine websites offer their members and visitors the opportunity to access an extended database of free or paid horse classifieds, well structured in a user-friendly manner. Horse classified ads the quick way to interact with people who are either interested in selling or adopting horses or horse-related items. Horse classifieds include a photograph, contacts and a description of the horse, accessories, equipment or services one is advertising for. For horse buyers and sellers altogether, equine websites that account for the horse classifieds feature are the fastest means to close a horse transaction on the Internet.

With the help of reliable equine websites, horse breeders, horse trainers or simply horse owners join forces and become members of an online community, having the opportunity to permanently interact in a fun, safe an interesting environment. Registered members have access to a lot of features such as Horse Blogs, Horse Chat Rooms, equestrian news and events, horse articles and many more!

Horse Blogs and Horse Chat Forums are the perfect means of exchanging information and confronting opinions with horse enthusiasts from every corner of the world, while horse articles are a valuable source of information for people who wish to extend their knowledge on horses. Horse enthusiasts not only have free access to valuable information, but they also have the opportunity to post their own horse articles, equestrian news or horse show events within the pages of the equine website of their choice. Through the means of a good equine website, beginners can quickly familiarize with all the issues and subtleties of horse breeding, training, selling or adopting, while experienced horse owners can share their knowledge with other people. Regardless of your level of experience with horses, you have a lot to benefit from becoming a member of a solid online equine website.

A valuable equine website should be a complete source of information for its registered members. In order to facilitate members access to equine information and to permanently keep them posted on the latest news and events, solid equine websites have recently introduced the powerful equine RSS feeds feature. An innovative service, equine RSS feeds enables horse enthusiasts to receive the latest equine information, equestrian news and horse articles right to their desktop. By activating their equine RSS feeds function, members can personalize and customize their personal websites and various other portals in no time!

If you want to become a member of an equine website, it is important to choose the one that best satisfies your needs and requirements. However, finding the best equine website is very easy, as good equine websites are easy to distinguish from the rest. Apart from traits such as prominence, good exposure and high popularity, the quality of such an online website is reflected directly by the diversity, efficiency and reliability of its offered services, the structure and the design of its pages, as well as the amount and the value of the information it offers to visitors. In addition, a good equine website should provide members with prompt feedback and meet their requirements with professionalism. Become a member of an equine website that meets these traits and you wont be disappointed!

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The Oscars, or Astronotus ocellatus, from Cichlidae family, are fairly easy fish to breed. All you need is pretty much leaving them alone and letting them do their thing if you lucky enough to get a pair. If not, breeding might be very hard. They are a very long-lived fish, probably one of the reasons they are so popular today. Originally from Amazon.

Oscar Fish obviously requires a large tank due to their large size. They prefer clean and clear water with a deep sand bottom, and a few large rocks. If you keep plants with you Oscars they will be dug up however there are some people that believe that Oscars like to have plants that they can dig up in the aquarium and this might be true since many large cichlid like to have toys when kept in aquariums not to get bored. And since Oscars are large and very smart cichlids, you can actually teach them tricks, they might want something to do like digging up plant.

Be careful, they are enthusiastic eaters and they love to eat smaller fish. Thus, only keep them with other fish that are of the same size. Temperature is important, and should be kept stable somewhere in 79-86F range. Feeding Oscars is not a problem since they will take every food you give, including flake frozen fish, prawns, pellets, earth worms, crickets, kitchen scrapesand of course live food.

The most trying task to do is finding a mating pair. If your Oscar is adult in size, it becomes a really trial-and-error process. However once they form pairs they will stay together for the rest of their life. Probably the most common and effective method of finding pair of Oscars is to buy 6 or 8 young specimens (about 1 inch in length), and allowing them to grow up together. A mating pair can be identified from their mating play, which is a seemingly aggressive behavior towards each other; lip-locking, tail-slapping. If one of the fish is overly aggressive, and it is a one-sided aggression and you should separate them or risk loosing one of them.

During their spawning process, they will use their mouths to clean a flat rock, and the female will lay her eggs there. Not all the eggs are laid at once; the female will take breathers, at which time the male moves in and fertilizes the eggs. A female usually lays 1,000-2,000 eggs. The eggs are opaque at first, turning transparent in 24 hours. After the eggs are laid, both parents watch over the eggs, wafting the eggs with their fin and guarding them against predators. Occasionally they take the eggs in their mouth, which keeps them clean and turns up bad eggs, which are then destroyed.

If a constant tank temperature is maintained, the eggs should hatch in about 36 hours. At first, the fry cannot swim, but they squirm en masse on the rock, living off the egg sac, for about 4 days. The parents constantly attend to their young at this time. Feeding these fry is easier than other breeds, because of the baby Oscar’s relatively large size. A good and simple plan is to crush regular processed flake food in your fingers, and just drop it in. Turn off filtration during fry feeding time to make it easier for them to find their bits of food.

How the parents act towards their fry depends entirely on each fish personality. Some have numerous spawn and never bother their fry; others easily eat their young. To be on the safe side, you can separate the fry from their parents. However I do not recommend this until the parents have had a few unsuccessful spawnings. The fry will reach 1.5 to 2 inches after 12 weeks at which time they can be sold.

About The Author
William Berg is an experienced aquarist and writes for http://www.aquaticcommunity.com and have articles featured on alot of other aquarium sites such as http://www.clownloach.info

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Gouramis are a quite popular chocies among fish hobbyists. For novice fish breeders, breeding gouramis can be an appealing challenge. Getting them to spawn and raising the fry can be a rewarding experience.

Gouramis are labyrinth fishes. They have labyrinth, which is an air-filled breathing hole, located under the gill covers. This kind of fish can often be seen going to the surface of the water to take in fresh air, making them survive waters with low oxygen levels. There are many different types of gouramis, which all originally came from South and Southeast Asia. Most species are easy to breed, however a few species like Helostoma temmincki (the Kissing Gourami), Osphromenus goramy (the Giant Gourami), Sphaerichthys osphromenoides (the Chocolate Gourami) are rather difficult. Some of the favmost popular species include the Pearl Gourami (Trichogaster leeri), the Dwarf Gourami (Colisa lalia) and the Honey Gourami (Colisa sota). And these are the species I am going to say a few words about breeding.

The pearl gourami is one of the most beautiful of all the gouramis. The body and fins have lovely mosaic pearls that shine in the lights. The length for female can reach 10cm, 12cm for male. These gouramis love shallow, warm (around 27 C), and slowly flowing waters. They are very calm fish and easy to keep. They eat just about anything; however green flakes and Grindal worms are preferable. The breeding aquarium should be 80 cm in length or larger, with some suspended and anchored plants. The aquarium should be filled with about 15-20cm of water with no air or filtration, temperature 29C. Up to 2000 eggs can be laid in one spawning. When the fry become free swimming the male should be removed from the aquarium. The female should be removed right after spawning.

The dwarf gourami has diagonal turquoise blue stripes on their reddish orange body. The males are larger and more colorful than the females. The male becomes very brightly colored at spawning time. Their nature and needs of treatment are similar to those of the pearl gouramis, they will eat anything they are being feed, however they prefer live foods and prepared mixtures. Best spawned in a separate aquarium especially setup for this purpose. Place a well-conditioned pair into a 40-liter or 60-liter, thickly planted aquarium with a lot of floating plants. The spawn can consist of 300 to 700 eggs. After spawning is completed, the female should be removed. The male will tend the spawn until the fry become free swimming, and then he should be removed too.

The males of honey gourami have beautiful bright orange-yellow color. The females are plain, have slightly shaded brownish orange body with a silvery fluorescent glow. They prefer aquariums with some thickly planted areas and with some open swimming areas. They usually eat anything you provide them with. These fish are moderately easy to breed, though a little more difficult than the dwarf gourami. For a pair, prepare a 40-liter aquarium without air stone or filter. The male will build a large bubble nest. The eggs will when laid float up into the bubble nest, where the male will guard over them until they hatch and the fry becomes free swimming, which is when he should be removed. The female should be removed right after spawning.

About The Author
William Berg is an experienced aquarist and writes for http://www.aquaticcommunity.com and have articles featured on alot of other aquarium sites such as http://www.clownloach.info

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