Well this past weekend was a pretty eventful day for me.
It started off with my Cichla monoculus pairing of and clearing oout some river rocks and Me adding 2 big rocks just in case they spawned. I was excited already knowing that they paired as I have been unsuccessful doing so in the past. I spoke to Brian Scott in the past about how to pair them off and he mentioned that the female usually beats the male up, for up to 2 weeks. If he survives then he will get excited and pair and spawn.
Problem I had with this was I had originally had them in Anythingfish's (Ted) 180G (6x2x2) to try to have them spawn there. But What happened was there is too much chasing room for the female to chase and beat the male. he almost was killed by her twice! Female is about 18-20" and the male is around 16-18". Eventually after a couple months of no spawns, Ted said that he needed me to take the fish back. When I took the fish back I had the female is a seperated part of my tank as she was big enough to swallow my other smaller Cichlas on teh other side of the divider (only have 1 tank
). she was in an area measuring 2x2. So not much room to manuver. eventually the male was put in that small space with her and like before she started to try to beat him. Now, because the space 2x2 is not much room for her size to manuver, the male had the advantage of getting away but still giving her signals without getting killed. After a week they paired! no more beating. I then moved the divider a bit and gave them a 3.5' x 2' space
They then started to clear out the river rock area and that is when I noticed my male started to attack me as I came near the tank. He used to calmly wait for food, but now he was protecting his nest. I added 2 rocks in there as I read that Cichla spawn on flat rocks and other flat surfaces but I didn't want them to spawn on the tank bottom. At this point I was not really expecting a spawn as I was happy with them just pairing off.
These series of pics were snapped when I was just excited with the pairing. But later that they they had spawned. the female "tube" had dropped within an hour and spawn right away.
I don't expect this spawn to be fertile as this is the male's first time and the female's 5th time. I am just happy that they did start to spawn, but of course wish me luck!
I was able to set up a tripod in front of the tank and take 2 hours worth of video of the spawning. I'm just glad they did it when I was home and could enjoy the whole process.
I didn't take much pics of the actual spawning as it kinda irritated the pair when I was in front of the tank so I only snapped a few shots and left the rest to the video camera.
Anyways, enough rambling, I know you guys want PICS!!!!! LOL!
(BTW, if u have a problem with me taking so many similar photos, then go look in a different thread. I am merely sharing every bit of excitement I have taking the pics and wanted to share with you all every pic I took.)
ENJOY!
.
Ok that's it for now. Lunch time is over and I need to get back to work. LOL
I'll keep adding pics throughout the day and let u guys know when the pics are done.
Enjoy these for now.
It started off with my Cichla monoculus pairing of and clearing oout some river rocks and Me adding 2 big rocks just in case they spawned. I was excited already knowing that they paired as I have been unsuccessful doing so in the past. I spoke to Brian Scott in the past about how to pair them off and he mentioned that the female usually beats the male up, for up to 2 weeks. If he survives then he will get excited and pair and spawn.
Problem I had with this was I had originally had them in Anythingfish's (Ted) 180G (6x2x2) to try to have them spawn there. But What happened was there is too much chasing room for the female to chase and beat the male. he almost was killed by her twice! Female is about 18-20" and the male is around 16-18". Eventually after a couple months of no spawns, Ted said that he needed me to take the fish back. When I took the fish back I had the female is a seperated part of my tank as she was big enough to swallow my other smaller Cichlas on teh other side of the divider (only have 1 tank
). she was in an area measuring 2x2. So not much room to manuver. eventually the male was put in that small space with her and like before she started to try to beat him. Now, because the space 2x2 is not much room for her size to manuver, the male had the advantage of getting away but still giving her signals without getting killed. After a week they paired! no more beating. I then moved the divider a bit and gave them a 3.5' x 2' spaceThey then started to clear out the river rock area and that is when I noticed my male started to attack me as I came near the tank. He used to calmly wait for food, but now he was protecting his nest. I added 2 rocks in there as I read that Cichla spawn on flat rocks and other flat surfaces but I didn't want them to spawn on the tank bottom. At this point I was not really expecting a spawn as I was happy with them just pairing off.
These series of pics were snapped when I was just excited with the pairing. But later that they they had spawned. the female "tube" had dropped within an hour and spawn right away.
I don't expect this spawn to be fertile as this is the male's first time and the female's 5th time. I am just happy that they did start to spawn, but of course wish me luck!
I was able to set up a tripod in front of the tank and take 2 hours worth of video of the spawning. I'm just glad they did it when I was home and could enjoy the whole process.
I didn't take much pics of the actual spawning as it kinda irritated the pair when I was in front of the tank so I only snapped a few shots and left the rest to the video camera.
Anyways, enough rambling, I know you guys want PICS!!!!! LOL!
(BTW, if u have a problem with me taking so many similar photos, then go look in a different thread. I am merely sharing every bit of excitement I have taking the pics and wanted to share with you all every pic I took.)
ENJOY!
.
Ok that's it for now. Lunch time is over and I need to get back to work. LOL
I'll keep adding pics throughout the day and let u guys know when the pics are done.
Enjoy these for now.
