After 5 long months my channa sp. "assam" have finally produced fry Sorry about the pic quality I'll get some better ones up later What do you guys think?
Thanks for all the kind comments To be honest all I did was provide basic needs...a heavily planted tank, a period of starvation and lowering of temperature to simulate the dry season, and I started with a single female channa and 4 males in the hope of obtaining a pair. I had an obvious pair after about a month, and I saw what I thought was the male holding eggs (they are mouthbrooders) twice. In the last couple of weeks the male of the pair has been hidden behind a large java fern at the back of the tank and when I went to move them yesterday (I am moving house) I found the fry! They are now in their own tank with the parents in my new fish room, with the other channa directly next door to provide a target for the pair. Hopefully this will mean they don't start eating the fry
Yes they are amazing. In this species the male is the focal point of fry care, and the babies follow him around the tank. He is very protective and attacked the net when I moved them. The female is patrolling the perimeter of the tank (ie. the edges of the territory). She also apparently lays batches of infertile but nutritious "feeder" eggs to feed the fry but I haven't seen any evidence of this yet...