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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.
today, round noon I peaked and observed a small clutch of eggs stuck on the roof inside the cave. Looked good. I was a fairly small clutch so could be another females first try.
This afternoon the male was out and not returning to the cave, the eggs were gone, he doesn’t seem to be guarding anything elsewhere in the tank so I will mark, breeding #3 a failure… at spawning. Not failure for me, learning something new almost everyday.
Everything normal, as it is usually with P. parvulus:
1. clutch small: Most parvulus – clutches are between 8 and 15 eggs, some could be bigger. Clutches of other P.-species are mostly bigger, especially by filamentosus or nagyi.
2. The female: The female’s second or third try (which you will see in near future) will hardly be much bigger. That’s parvulus! A typical K-strategist as opposed to r-strategists that produce big clutches.
3. Eggs gone: Quite normal with parvulus. They must not really be gone. P. parvulus males are sophisticated egg-carriers, and afterwards they often visit the new places (plural!) but not guarding as intense as before. Weeks later the young appear. But it could equally be the case that the eggs are really gone, either eaten by the male or by snails or … That’s a puzzle with this species.
Be proud you have it and be patient. It will not be the last clutch.
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