Thank you Peter, we can only hope for the best.
The spawning ritual is as decribed in the literatue, his darting around is quite sudden and extreme. That is what caugh my attention… I thought I had a fish in distress as seen from across the room.
He did indeed make sudden jumps around her taking up a good bit of room. Then would drift toward her and do the little snake dance, flaring fins and intense color. She responds by either drifting away or flaring back at him and sometimes a little nudge. Occasionaly they would press against each other and finally ended up in the cave.
I still havent looked into the cave but am sure there are eggs. He is letting nothing near the cave, and doing regular patrols around the front and then back in, very attentive and protective.
I will wait and not bother him for a few days as this is his third spawning and hope he got it right. As long as he is hanging out and guarding the cave all is well. He quickly abandoned the other spawns.