Hemiloricaria melini spawning again...

[Lars Jamne]

My Hemiloricaria melini's is spawning again, but once again the single male lets severals female join in... Hopefully he manages to care for the eggs this time, normally he eats them and lets another female in. If this happen this time as well it will result in removing six of the seven females and leave them as a pair for a while.

[Barbie]

Very impressive! Does he eat them? or the females? IME the females do it as part of the fight to get in the cave with them, but I haven't raised this particular fish yet ;).

Barbie

[Lars Jamne]

It's the male who eats them as it always happens when he's alone in the cave and another female is lurking outside the cave. The females (#3 and #4 etc) aren't let in before the cave is emptied out. But this month not all seven are full of eggs so there's a chance he'll manage to keep track on the first two spawnings. The eggs are now covering the bottom, left side and partial roof of the cave.

[nvcichlids]

Is it a closed ended cave? If so maybe a tube open on both ends may help?

[Lars Jamne]

I have tried with caves that are open in both ends, with the same result. Today all the eggs were gone as well so I collected all of the females and left the male with the fattest and roundest female. So hopefully they'll get it going again within a few weeks now that they are alone in the tank.

Hemiloricaria melini female