mine it took two seconds after she layed for him to fertilize, Honestly it was almost in unisen. I let them keep the fry for about tree weeks till male got ready again. Then the second athrid I went two weeks just to be safe and had a divider handy. But three weeks was about max for my male. I think I have pics of the pair on water wolves under the same user name. If you want to see them. They were small 3" when they breed .