Red ciebals breeding?

[coolingeffect]

I got this adult bonded pair a few days ago and the first day was spent digging and chasing the female around. After every single grain of sand was removed from the chosen cave they became inseperable and are never more then a couple inches from eachother. Today i noticed that they are showing some pretty impressive colors and the females breeding tube is looking a bit swollen. Could it be that after only 3 days they are getting ready to spawn?

[Red]

Yeah, they want to break in the cave :)
I had angels 27 hours into a new tank and they bred.

[rich311k]

It sure sounds like they are ready. Good luck.

[rothenb1]

Ship me some fry please!?!?!?

I'm totally serious.

Good luck, I hope they spawn!

[toddnbecka]

Moving fish into a new tank often triggers spawning IME. Incidentally, they're substrate spawners, not likely to be interested in a cave. I've never kept the red ceibals, but my oblongum female likes to hang the clump of wigglers among the Najas and move them around for a few days until they're free-swimming. Yours will either do the same, or dig several different pits in the substrate to move the fry around.
Australoheros are some slow-growing fish IME, it will take at least couple months for the fry to reach 1". The Gymnogeophagus are about the same.

[coolingeffect]

from what the guy i got these fish from tells me they actually always lay eggs on a verticle surface that they painstakingly prepare. If i get any surviving fry i would be happy to ship some around. However i happen to know where there are about 200 fry about 2/3 of an inch that you could probably get.

[rothenb1]

Where's that? If you want, PM me.

[coolingeffect]

Well its comfirmed, they spawned today, there are a ton of eggs layed all over the inside wall of their cave, alot of them are white and thus non viable but id say about 1/3 of them look good. Looks like its time for me to go get a thing of brine shrimp eggs and a 10 gallon tank with a sponge filter.

[rothenb1]

Exciting! Keep us posted.

[coolingeffect]

well i think this might be a dead spawn, more and more eggs are turning white and i dont think anything is going to hatch. Should i take the rock out and scrub the eggs away? I dont want them to decompose and cause chemistry issues. Im sure they will try again.

[toddnbecka]

They'll most likely clean them up in a day or two.

[rothenb1]

aw :scry: better luck next time!

[coolingeffect]

i dont think it will take long, the female is still showing breeding colors and they are investigating a different cave, maybe with better conditions for next time.

[coolingeffect]

i was wrong, apparently what i was looking at was empty eggs, i have a little piece of pvc that is in a hole that was drilled for a sump or something back in the day. There are about 40 fry in there with momma constantly guarding. I gotta go get food for em now.

[toddnbecka]

Only 40 fry is a very low number, a good-size female will produce several hundred eggs. On the other hand, 40 fry are easier to deal with...

[coolingeffect]

my 40 estimate was way off, more like 200 i just couldnt see the wigglers at the bottom of the piece of pvc they had the fry in.