Are my blue gouramis wanting to mate?

[prhelp]

Tank is described below. It is mostly very peaceful. Earlier, I'd written about the male blue chasing the female blue relentlessly -- he still does, but it seems to simply be their pattern.

One thing to note about the chasing -- it often looked like the male was trying to "pin" the female down on the bottom of the tank (or elsewhere). She'd go through some tremendous wiggling to prevent being "pinned."

Lately (past 2 days), the female has taken to hanging out toward the back. And I've noticed a slight swelling -- it is toward her belly, between the middle spot and the tail spot, and only below. It is very slight, but I can notice it when the shadows fall on her.

She's eating fine and everything else seems normal, except her quietude and that swelling.

There are no floating plants in the tank yet. Temp is constantly 79 degrees. Diet is primarily flake (65 percent), with the remaining being frozen and freeze dried brine shrimp, some frozen bloodworms.

What's up? Are they trying to breed? Do females ever get eggs they cannot release due to improper breeding conditions?

I'm not TRYING to breed them, but I also don't want to get in the way if something is trying to happen here.

 

[catfishmike]

has the male made any bubble nest at all?if not i would asume that either your male is being territorial or isn't mature yet.he may not know to build a nest if he is too young.it does sound like a possiblity that he is interested in mating.have you been feeding lots of frozen and live food that will cause the fish to produce the hormones responsable for breeding and makig the female gravid with eggs

 

[prhelp]

Update: I took the male blue back. He was keeping her penned in all the time, and she was looking not so good. I'm happy to report she's thriving now, as are the rest of the inhabitants. I realize I might have been able to solve it by adding another female blue, but I didn't want to incur the risk and three blue gouramis in my existing tank would've been too many fish, in my view.

And oddly enough, I think i solved my floating plant problem just when the male came out -- details are in aquatic forum, "good floating plants" if you want more.

Thanks, catfish.

 

[woodsta_3000]

iv found that with my pair, that if your not carefull, the male will chase the female to such an extent, that the female actually dies of stress, i would always watch out for these, there is a differentce between chasing, and biting!!