hi all. I'm taking my time with my latest spawn attempt. In the past (around 10 failed spawn attempts), I was always too quick to release the female. Anyways, I have her in a chimney in a 1/3 filled 10gallon tank with heater and light. There's a whisper stingray filter in there that's long been used in a tank, but it is off for now.
Anyways, the male has half filled up the styrofoam cup and is very interested in the female. The female is very interested in return and follows him around from within her 2L pop bottle (top and bottom cut off). She has had various amounts of barring and they're often very noticable but only 2 bars (I've seen pics of females almost fully barred up).
To get to the point (since it's 1:30 am here), I have noticed this male spazzing out lately. He goes right up to the plastic chimney and tries to get even closer to the female. For a minute or so tonight I actually saw him flipping out as if he were trying to wrap around her despite the chimney being in the way. Should I take this as a good sign and let her out in the next day or so? I want to feed them well for at least another day, but may be tempted to release her if this behaviour keeps up. I've been good with changing water every two days to keep the water as clean as I can and they both seem happy. Any thoughts/opinions/directions would be very helpful.
In the past, I've tried around 10 spawns, all being unsuccessful except for one time when they spawned (tho I didn't know it until too late). The male ate all the fry except one or two that died the same day. You'd think I'd be frustrated, and I am, but I've always loved a challenge, and I'm going to keep trying until I know how to do it with little problems.
Oh yeah, I was reading a site on the Thai method today, and decided to put newspaper around 3 sides of the tank to limit the distraction from outside. I can still check progress by lifting a little door on the lid of the tank. Is this a good thing to do?
Thanks in advance for any help! I'll get pictures after the spawn (if it works out) as I don't want to remove the newspaper yet.
-Ian
Anyways, the male has half filled up the styrofoam cup and is very interested in the female. The female is very interested in return and follows him around from within her 2L pop bottle (top and bottom cut off). She has had various amounts of barring and they're often very noticable but only 2 bars (I've seen pics of females almost fully barred up).
To get to the point (since it's 1:30 am here), I have noticed this male spazzing out lately. He goes right up to the plastic chimney and tries to get even closer to the female. For a minute or so tonight I actually saw him flipping out as if he were trying to wrap around her despite the chimney being in the way. Should I take this as a good sign and let her out in the next day or so? I want to feed them well for at least another day, but may be tempted to release her if this behaviour keeps up. I've been good with changing water every two days to keep the water as clean as I can and they both seem happy. Any thoughts/opinions/directions would be very helpful.
In the past, I've tried around 10 spawns, all being unsuccessful except for one time when they spawned (tho I didn't know it until too late). The male ate all the fry except one or two that died the same day. You'd think I'd be frustrated, and I am, but I've always loved a challenge, and I'm going to keep trying until I know how to do it with little problems.
Oh yeah, I was reading a site on the Thai method today, and decided to put newspaper around 3 sides of the tank to limit the distraction from outside. I can still check progress by lifting a little door on the lid of the tank. Is this a good thing to do?
Thanks in advance for any help! I'll get pictures after the spawn (if it works out) as I don't want to remove the newspaper yet.
-Ian
