Thanks for the info, Charlie. I suppose this type of behavior does present some complicating problems when it comes to defining the incubation period for the species. I would imagine that there is an approximate number of days typically required per egg to hatch. From the numbers you and another PC member have posted on the CLOG for the species (9 and 14 days), I suspect that these shorter times are more representative of the actual time per egg than is 20 days. But even if exchange between brooding males is not considered, your observation that females do not lay all their eggs at once, but come back to the male and deposit more eggs into the clutch over a period of days, means that the average clutch time (20 days or so) may be more meaningful to the hobbyist (and to the dad, obviously, LOL), unless the hobbyist wishes to capture and separate each fry as it hatches. But that would seem to be impractical, in fact almost risky, if the stress of trying to grab out the early hatchlings might cause the dad to abandon any unhatched eggs (I'm just speculating here, because I don't know how committed and tolerant of a parent these dads are; some fish I've kept abandon their eggs (or eat them) at the slightest disturbance).CharlieM9 wrote:They actually are a rather funny species to get a "real" incubation time from unless you would move the dad the morning that you notice the eggs. Because at least with mine I have observed females adding to the size of the spawn within a few days, and also males even swapping eggs from two males to just one male holding. It appears in this last case as though it follows the hierarchy of dominance.
I'm curious, have you left any of the fry with the father? If so, what happens? How does dad divide his time between herding young (if at all) and nursing unhatched eggs?
Cheers, Eric
