Pierre-Normand Houle wrote in message
.. .
I've bought some colisa lalia, one male and three females, at the end of
June. One
week later the male built a bubble nest and I saw them spawn in the
evening. I only
removed the nest one week later (July 12th) and there were few remaining
fry. I did
not manage to keep any alive.

The male again built a bubble nest on July 24th and they spawned the next
day. I put
the nest in a ten gallon tank the same evening. The fry are not shy and
are swimming
around the whole tank whenever the lighting is off. I will only be feeding
the fry
infusoria for the next few days.

Today, on July the 30th, the male is building a bubble nest again. Will he
ever take
a break? Although he's quite entertaining to watch, two of the females
have somewhat
damaged caudal fins due to the incessant chasing, and despite an abundance
of hiding
places in this heavily planted tank. The other fish are not bothered a bit
(5
cardinal tetras, 3 small SAEs, 3 otos, 3 red phantom tetras, plus maybe 12
amano
shrimps)

Should I remove the new nest right away or should I wait a few days after
the
spawning? I don't mind letting them (mostly the females) eat the eggs and
fry. I'd
like the male to calm down for more than 5 days in a row, though.

I'd be curious to know how often your gouramis (dwarf or other species)
spawn.


Your male will try to breed as long as ripe females are available. He won't
care if they have ripped fins. To get him out of spawning mode, you might
have to separate him. Even without females, the nest building is an
expression of good health.
The eggs hatch in about 36 hours. By the time you moved that first nest,
most of the fry would have moved on, and probably became a meal.
In a way, it's a bit of an advantage for you that the fry numbers are low.
Imagine how many tanks you would need if all of the up to 1,000 eggs from
each spawning hatched and the fry survived.

Jim