Last week I had pulled 3 female Peacocks who were holding eggs into fry tanks. They all spit young, and with the Coptodon bythobates fry, that meant I set up 4 tanks for fry. This weekend, I set up 5 more tanks of Peacocks who are holding. Since pulling the buthobates fry, I’m hoping the parents will spawn again soon. It should be a busy spring with everything going on. The successful Peacock spawns included Electric Blue Ahli and Albino Eurecka Reds. The new spawns are from OB Ahlis, EB Ahlis, and a cross between some albino Rubescens Re femaless and a Dragon’s Blood male. Just checking on the Bythobates this morning shows them cleaning a pit in the gravel and chasing the other fish away. The pair is very tight, and I’ll be very interested in trying to actually observe the spawning activity. Denny
The pair of Coptodon bythobates has finally spawned again. They had been digging pits in the gravel for the past several days, and I couldn’t see what they were for (partially because the glass on the tank is so cruddy). This morning I was looking again, and I noticed some eggs in one of the newer pits. This particular pit wasn’t quite as deep as the previous ones, and still had gravel at the bottom (the earlier pits were all the way to the glass bottom). Among the pieces of small gravel were the eggs they had laid. I’m not sure how many eggs were there, but I should find out in the next several days as the fry become free-swimming.
After 24-36 hours the eggs disappeared. I’m not sure if they were eaten, they fungused, or they hatched and I just can’t see the wrigglers. The only reason I still have hope that the eggs hatched is that the adults are still seeming to be very protective of the area where they dug all the pits and laid the eggs. Usually the egg sac is absorbrd in 4-6 days after hatching, so I’ll be keeping a really close eye on them after about Tuesday. Stay tuned.
Looks like the second spawn was a bust. The eggs disappeared, and it looked like the pair had covered the bare spots with a thin layer of gravel. They stayed above the area for around 4 days with no signs of any fry, then seemed to become uninterested. Now today they are starting to dig more pits, and seem to be interested in each other again. I’ll have to keep an eye out for new eggs again.