Somewhere around six months ago I began clearing my 220 of all of my other fish when my Jag and Red Devil started showing what I perceived were signs of breeding. They were getting whipped up on by both so I figured I would accommodate them and give them some space. After I removed a the last, and very similar sized, female Trimac from the tank my Red Devil grew a nuchal hump almost over night. After running it by MFK to make sure I didn't incorrectly sex the Devil, I took this as a sign things were progressing towards them breeding. Unfortunately after observing some of the behavior since, I'm starting to think they may have not wanted to breed at all.
Day in and day out the fish follow a similar routine. The male cleans a spot on the left side of the tank and doesn't let the female anywhere near his side of the tank. They have frequent lip locking sessions, or a series of pump fake lip locking sessions at the border of his territory, then the devil retreats and tries again. Occasionally the Jag will very aggressively pursue the chase outside of his area, but rarely. Recently he has been shutting her down when she is trying to eat the floating pellets causing another kind of cat and mouse game in the tank. Either way they are very mouthy with each other, mostly when she tries to enter the left side of the tank. I've included a video, which ironically starts with them right next to each other on his side, which only happens when I'm standing beside the tank and they are anticipating me feeding them.
My question is for people who have bred either of these fish, or just accomplished breeders, can you tell by this video if this is a lost cause or are they still working the logistics out? (I keep assuming there are at least 100 people on this site that could drop by my basement and diagnose the problem in a minute.) The Jag has bred with a convict before, so I assume he knows how to get the job done, but the Devil has never bred. Every few days I have been making slight tweaks to the temperature in hopes that it will trigger a spawn if I get it correct, but so far I've had no luck. I'm considering altering the driftwood to switch up the Jags territory hoping the change could make them renegotiate the terms of their space but I'm worried that drastic of an alteration might turn into a bloodbath.
Any help would be appreciated. I'd like to see these guys either get their wish to breed, or their wish to be separated.
Here is the link, hopefully it works.
Day in and day out the fish follow a similar routine. The male cleans a spot on the left side of the tank and doesn't let the female anywhere near his side of the tank. They have frequent lip locking sessions, or a series of pump fake lip locking sessions at the border of his territory, then the devil retreats and tries again. Occasionally the Jag will very aggressively pursue the chase outside of his area, but rarely. Recently he has been shutting her down when she is trying to eat the floating pellets causing another kind of cat and mouse game in the tank. Either way they are very mouthy with each other, mostly when she tries to enter the left side of the tank. I've included a video, which ironically starts with them right next to each other on his side, which only happens when I'm standing beside the tank and they are anticipating me feeding them.
My question is for people who have bred either of these fish, or just accomplished breeders, can you tell by this video if this is a lost cause or are they still working the logistics out? (I keep assuming there are at least 100 people on this site that could drop by my basement and diagnose the problem in a minute.) The Jag has bred with a convict before, so I assume he knows how to get the job done, but the Devil has never bred. Every few days I have been making slight tweaks to the temperature in hopes that it will trigger a spawn if I get it correct, but so far I've had no luck. I'm considering altering the driftwood to switch up the Jags territory hoping the change could make them renegotiate the terms of their space but I'm worried that drastic of an alteration might turn into a bloodbath.
Any help would be appreciated. I'd like to see these guys either get their wish to breed, or their wish to be separated.
Here is the link, hopefully it works.
