My first potential spawn

[ue222]

When I used to remove wigglers away from the female to raise them artificially, the females on average still had her colors for a couple of weeks even when there were no eggs in the tank.

Every female is different though.

Ok thank you I will just keep watching them for now. So she could just be guarding nothing then at this point?

 

[xSparkleZ]

Ok thank you I will just keep watching them for now. So she could just be guarding nothing then at this point?

Only way to confirm would be to actually inspect the cave.
At this stage, more than likely, you should be able to see the wigglers on the ground of the cave.

 

[ue222]

Is flashlight bad for fish? Hurts my eye must hurt theirs too?

 

[xSparkleZ]

Just looked with a light don’t see anything. Not sure what she’s guarding still but I guess just the territory or maybe getting ready to spawn again.

Could be just exhibiting normal behavior as my females typically spend time in their designated caves.

I also deliberately push sand into the cave alot more than usual after every spawn as I will know they are about to spawn again when they start creating a mound of sand in front of the cave entrance by pushing everything back out once they are starting to nest.

You will also see them start to clean the ceiling of the cave where they plan to lay their eggs.

 

[xSparkleZ]

Is flashlight bad for fish? Hurts my eye must hurt theirs too?

Not sure about it being necessarily bad for them, but there are various opinions out there that light might impact the hatch rate of eggs.

I have a Mini Maglite LED flashlight where I put red transparent tape over the lens.
I find the fish react less to the red light rather than the bright white light.
Also, it helps with your night vision when inspecting caves while the lights are off in the tank.

 

[ue222]

Ok wonderful information thank you will get on that, I’ve heard red light can be good to spot pests in reef tank at night so 2 birds 1 stone there. She still is probably young too. I bet I give them a couple tries and it’ll work out.

 

[xSparkleZ]

Ok wonderful information thank you will get on that, I’ve heard red light can be good to spot pests in reef tank at night so 2 birds 1 stone there. She still is probably young too. I bet I give them a couple tries and it’ll work out.

I'm sure you will be sharing fry pictures shortly.

 

[ue222]

I'm sure you will be sharing fry pictures shortly.

I can only hope! At least I’m prepared now. Just need to decide on my grow out tank size so I can grab 2 before the petco Aqueon sale ends.

 

[ue222]

Update: just realized over the last 24 hours a new cave a half coconut had the entrance almost fully blocked with sand. Just caught the female pushing sand from inside the coconut floor to the outside. I see the male curiously swimming around this cave and taking a peek in but not entering. Im thinking she decided to try a new cave for spawning and is preparing it right now? She has remained breeding color this entire time.

 

[xSparkleZ]

Update: just realized over the last 24 hours a new cave a half coconut had the entrance almost fully blocked with sand. Just caught the female pushing sand from inside the coconut floor to the outside. I see the male curiously swimming around this cave and taking a peek in but not entering. Im thinking she decided to try a new cave for spawning and is preparing it right now? She has remained breeding color this entire time.

More than likely, there may already be eggs present - if the entrance is almost fully blocked off.

 

[ue222]

Yeah the entrance is fully blocked but I just saw a little pile of sand poof out from inside I think I caught her at the very end of blocking it all up. Will get the BBS ready again

 

[ue222]

Video https://share.icloud.com/photos/02dKpW3PAikGad5YJA2RBQ2vg

 

[xSparkleZ]

Video link seems broken.

 

[ue222]

Photo then!

 

[xSparkleZ]

Wow.
That's to the brim!

 

[ue222]

Wow.
That's to the brim!

Yeah I saw her finally come out and when she went back in it was as tight a squeeze as I’m sure they like to make. She’s been out of the cave a little more today so we’ll see if they hatch this time. Will keep it posted.

 

[ue222]

Devastating update: noticed the male missing when I got home tonight. After looking with a light in the caves and seeing nothing I feared the worst, that he went carpet surfing but didn’t see anything. Unfortunately I checked again, I found him crispy behind the stand somehow landed perfectly on a paper towel I dropped back there a while ago. Managed to jump through a gap where the filter outflow is and some acrobatic maneuvers over or around the filter. He was still so colorful dried up . She was probably chasing him, don’t think it was poor water conditions as the remaining apisto, pencils, and otos are looking as good as they have ever.

Not sure what to do now. The female may still be guarding fertilized eggs. I hope they hatch and I can raise his young. If not I may have to switch to agassizii borellii or another different species. I’m getting bad signs from hongsloi. First the sneaker male I returned and now the original big male diving to his death.