I have watched, photographed and videoed Paraneetroplus breidohri many, many times while they were preparing to spawn, laying down the eggs, guarding the eggs , guarding the newly hatched wrigglers, and tending to their cloud of free-swimming fry. The one part of the process that I had never managed to observe for this species was the actual hatching, and how the parents handled it. Well tonight was the night. While doing a couple of water changes, I noticed that a young pair had a large spawn on a rock. But the parents weren't fanning the eggs. The male was keeping a more distant watch on things, but the female was a 'going concern, picking the fry off the rock either just after she would notice one hatch, or picked at an egg until it was force-hatched, so to speak. She then shuttled to her new hiding place for the fry, and then, back to the rock for another load. I just captured a few moments of the process but I'm sure it will go on for hours, or as long as there are still remaining eggs to hatch. The female is a bundle of energy, and an expert at multitasking. Obviously she is making all the decisions, and doing all the work. Sound familiar? And she still has time to 'remind' the male that he must be more attentive, and then she fends off an attack from a hungry tank mate. Rarely have I seen such a hyperactive effort on the part of a cichlid species. Awesome.
[video=youtube_share;rMSJl9rJO9Y]http://youtu.be/rMSJl9rJO9Y[/video]
[video=youtube_share;rMSJl9rJO9Y]http://youtu.be/rMSJl9rJO9Y[/video]
