Spawning Problem

[fishykisses]

I have the new pair together, they've been in the spawning tank together for 2 days, well 3 because she was in her holey bowl for 24 hours.
He won't stop building his nest - he's completely covered the surface of the cup and also the depth if you can believe it, it's incredible, i've taken photo's but there's too much white, you can't make out what it is.
I think he's obsessive-compulsive. Anyway whenever his woman tries to enter the nest he chases her out. He does try to seek her out outside the nest but with him just chasing her out - she's swims away from him. She's only got a couple little nips out of her fins.
What should i do? - she's so fat with eggs.
Should i just leave them together? I thought there might be too much action in the room because they are both very social and love to come and see momma when i'm in front of the tank (which is right beside Kaden's fry tank)...so i covered the tank and just peeked in every so often to see what they were doing...NOTHING! He was of course bubble nesting and she was hanging out on the other side of the tank.
I have the tank uncovered now since they seem to notice each other more when there's some light at least. I'm still feeding them twice a day in the spawning tank.
I just can't think of what else to do - oh yeah and there are 3 IAL's in there too along with plants.
Thanks guys - i'm at a loss
oh - i can't tell if she's barred up because she has a white body

 

[Bre_B]

i always leave em in for 3 days not including the jar day ( i have mostly white female so the only way i can tell is just by throwing them in and hoping/watching ) and if no results after three days, i grab my 2nd female and put her in. if still no results, i assume its daddy who is just a bit clueless and bring in a new boy.

 

[Joby]

I have to agree with what Bre_B says. Leave them a little longer then swap females if you can.

 

[nashnut]

It's hard with the white colored females. Does she swim head down when she's near him?

Another thing I've found is that the males seem to prefer the darker colored females more than the lighter ones. I've had a couple non events where the male and female just swam around together and became buddies. However, as soon as a dark female hit the water things would change with him and he'd be building a nest within minutes.

I currently have a black/copper male plakat side by side with a cambodian/copper female plakat and he's interested but she's not. Go figure.

 

[Silvani]

What happened with this? Did he ever stop his bubble obsession? Or did you have to call it quits?

 

[fishykisses]

Actually i left her in there and went away for the weekend. Came home today to find NO nest - whatsoever and she still didn't have a nip on her - they just became roomates. So i took them both out cleaned the tank thoroughly and decided to try another pair. I actually just bought a gorgeous copper plakat today that i'm gonna try with my copper female SD. I'll post pics on another post.