"Marital disputes"

[divemaster99]

I got a breeding pair of Cryptoheros cutteri last Friday and up to today they haven't bugged any other fish or each other....of course that could never last . The female is vigorously defending a bridge decoration and if the male comes close to it she bites him. The male is scared to death of her and every time he tries to scavenge up some guts to face her he just gets intimidated and runs away being chased by the female. They are in a 75 gallon with 6 giant danios, 1 striped raph, and 1 sailfin pleco (nobody is 4"). First thing I thought was "maybe eggs?" But I can't get the right angle to check under it, right now she just turned upside down and swam slowly under the bridge and I also noticed I think her tube is down so maybe she is laying eggs. Regardless the male isn't in to it and if they are eggs he is making no effort to fertilize or even pay attention to them. If I find out they are eggs I'll tell you guys, in the mean time what should I be doing?

also, I worried if they have eggs my pleco would eat them but if they are under a tight decoration that the female sleeps in does that give them a better survival rate?

 

[divemaster99]

Is that her tube?

 

[divemaster99]

Can someone on here that's bred cutteri please share their experience. I'd like to see if similar behavior is going on in my tank.

I'm going to turn the tank light off to try to reduce aggression for now.

 

[fwprawn]

This is normal - keep us posted!

 

[divemaster99]

This is normal - keep us posted!

OK good, I was just making sure to prevent any casualties. Hope frank (the male) gets into the spawning idea otherwise why have a breeding pair, I'm sure he'll come around plus I'm going to my friend's LFS tomorrow and he has bred SO MANY species of CAs I'm sure he can help me as well.

 

[duanes]

The tube drops a day or 2 before she puts down eggs, and yes she is in spawning color.
But if you leave the pleco and other cats in the tank, the eggs and fry will will be eaten. If I were you I'd take them to your friends store before the eggs are laid.

 

[divemaster99]

The tube drops a day or 2 before she puts down eggs, and yes she is in spawning color.
But if you leave the pleco and other cats in the tank, the eggs and fry will will be eaten. If I were you I'd take them to your friends store before the eggs are laid.

i can't find it in myself to get rid if them so I'm going to get a tank divider tomorrow and give the pair maybe a tiny bit less than half the tank. Fry that go through May get eaten but I think the majority will survive. I'm also going to pick up a 20 tall and sponge filter tomorrow and begin cycling it so it's ready for the fry. If the tube is just dropping now then was she just doing "practice runs" on the bridge?

if that's spawning color then I don't think the make is very into it. He is still tan and barely showing any bars.

 

[duanes]

It takes a little time for the male to change color, it is variable, sometimes when the eggs are laid, sometimes not until the fry are free swimming.
Here's my male before fry.

after fry hatched

 

[divemaster99]

It takes a little time for the male to change color, it is variable, sometimes when the eggs are laid, sometimes not until the fry are free swimming.
Here's my male before fry.

after fry hatched

Yeah, the first one is how mine looks now. How long did it take for your male to come around or was it good from the start? Also once I have fry should I let the male take care of the fry, the female, or both? Do you think my idea is good? Nice to find someone else on MFK who has some good experience with cutteri .

 

[duanes]

I left both parents with the fry in a 125 gal for a while, but she didn't have enough space to avoid the aggression of the male and he killed her, I then removed a number of fry to a 40 gal grow out tank.
If I had it to do over, I'd remove the male to another tank soon after the fry become free swimming.