Yesterday, Just over two weeks after the first spawning..the male began displaying to the female – this time instead of “stay away from my developing larvae” to “let’s spawn again” – the female was in agreement. (Judging by the male’s behavior – he remained guarding developing larvae until the female became gravid again. I have been feeding to the potentially free-swimming larvae a nice mix of infusoria, microworms and artemia).
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I must correct a previous statement “this male never displays in the head-down position” – actually, sometime he does..
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But the most purposeful and intense displays still take place as the horizontal-sideways form..feeding time really brings on the displays, it seems.
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I noticed that male dorsal area changes colors depending on mood..
Non-display mode
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Display mode – it is much darker
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Here a very nice portrait of the displaying male (yesterday afternoon same time as all of the preceding photos). This population/variant is really spectacular!
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So this morning, while I was away at work…the second successful spawning of this pair took place 🙂 I could only photo the male tending what looks to be ~20 viable eggs in a very robust bubble nest. The male chose the canister again over all the other spawning sites. Aside from these couple of photos of the canister, I will keep disturbance to an absolute minimum. Hopefully the male will allow the eggs to develop in the canister so I can photo any larvae that should develop and hatch several days hence.
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The second male, of the two I received, has now grown up to begin his first displays. He is much smaller than the more mature male above, but shows the potential to become just as magnificently colored.
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