I came home from work to a surprise - 200+ eggs being guarded by one of my Geophagus Brasiliensis.
Here is a pic (sorry about poor quality - just an iPhone pic)
The past two days, my two geos have been dancing around each other and quite honestly have some minor wounds from nipping each other. I was wondering if it was a mating ritual!
They had gone through the dance in the past, and then gotten very protective of an area of the tank for about two days before reverting to normal behavior. But I had never seen eggs before...
So since I'm a rookie with geo spawning, I figured I'd solicit advice...
I assume the Geo guarding the eggs is the female. In this cash she is larger than the other by about an inch, but the other one has some small hint of a nuchal lump, hence my assumption that he is male. Curiously however, he is staying away, though he is the only fish in the tank that she allows near by. I don't know if that means that he has not fertilized them yet.
She picked a difficult spot to defend - right in the back corner of my 92 gallon corner tank. And my bala sharks and rainbow shark are circling. But my green severum, senegal bichir and synodontis angelicus are staying away.
I suppose I'll just wait and see what happens. I have a live-bearer floating breeder (I used for mollies) that I can use if they hatch but don't want to separate them from the mother. I do not have another tank cycled and empty right now.
Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.
Here is a pic (sorry about poor quality - just an iPhone pic)
The past two days, my two geos have been dancing around each other and quite honestly have some minor wounds from nipping each other. I was wondering if it was a mating ritual!
They had gone through the dance in the past, and then gotten very protective of an area of the tank for about two days before reverting to normal behavior. But I had never seen eggs before...
So since I'm a rookie with geo spawning, I figured I'd solicit advice...
I assume the Geo guarding the eggs is the female. In this cash she is larger than the other by about an inch, but the other one has some small hint of a nuchal lump, hence my assumption that he is male. Curiously however, he is staying away, though he is the only fish in the tank that she allows near by. I don't know if that means that he has not fertilized them yet.
She picked a difficult spot to defend - right in the back corner of my 92 gallon corner tank. And my bala sharks and rainbow shark are circling. But my green severum, senegal bichir and synodontis angelicus are staying away.
I suppose I'll just wait and see what happens. I have a live-bearer floating breeder (I used for mollies) that I can use if they hatch but don't want to separate them from the mother. I do not have another tank cycled and empty right now.
Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.
