Yay!!!! I just recently bought this pair of German Blues and didn't think that they would pair up. But they did and I noticed their weird habits like: cleaning, territorial over a flat stone, always together, and the female's lavender belly has gotten rosy pink since I took her home two weeks ago.
They live in my 16 gallon, moderately planted with swords, corkscrew vai, java moss, dwarf hairgrass, and banana plant, gently decorated with driftwood and rocks that I stacked up to form little caves. I had to remove all other fish when I noticed their spawning behavior.
Then one day I came home to find the female 'abused' by the male (he was aggressively chasing her around the tank). Her left eyeball was swollen red by his pecks. I wasn't sure if this was spawning behavior b/c it was so brutal so I put him in a breeder net for a day.
The next day, the female's eyeball looked a bit better and I released the male back into the tank. That was 2 days ago. Last night I came home from work and found eggs on the flat rock they had claimed. How exciting!!
I heard that Rams usually end up eating their eggs, but my Rams are excellent parents. They take turns guarding and fanning the eggs. Funny thing is, they swim over to my airstone, gobble up some air bubbles, swim back and blows it onto the eggs also. Ha ha!! It's pretty amusing to watch. So I thought that they needed more air, and while trying to move the airstone tube closer to the eggs, both of them teamed up and started attacking my airstone vigorously.
I'm wondering if anyone knows what to do from here. Should I let the parents do all the work since they have proven themselves good parents? If so, I will leave them in the 16 gal. and what kind of filter should I use so that it is safe for the frys when they hatch?
They live in my 16 gallon, moderately planted with swords, corkscrew vai, java moss, dwarf hairgrass, and banana plant, gently decorated with driftwood and rocks that I stacked up to form little caves. I had to remove all other fish when I noticed their spawning behavior.
Then one day I came home to find the female 'abused' by the male (he was aggressively chasing her around the tank). Her left eyeball was swollen red by his pecks. I wasn't sure if this was spawning behavior b/c it was so brutal so I put him in a breeder net for a day.
The next day, the female's eyeball looked a bit better and I released the male back into the tank. That was 2 days ago. Last night I came home from work and found eggs on the flat rock they had claimed. How exciting!!
I heard that Rams usually end up eating their eggs, but my Rams are excellent parents. They take turns guarding and fanning the eggs. Funny thing is, they swim over to my airstone, gobble up some air bubbles, swim back and blows it onto the eggs also. Ha ha!! It's pretty amusing to watch. So I thought that they needed more air, and while trying to move the airstone tube closer to the eggs, both of them teamed up and started attacking my airstone vigorously.
I'm wondering if anyone knows what to do from here. Should I let the parents do all the work since they have proven themselves good parents? If so, I will leave them in the 16 gal. and what kind of filter should I use so that it is safe for the frys when they hatch?