Belated update: Weekend before last I had to move these two groups. The tank of the group that hadn't spawned I could move (with my son's help) having drained it of all but a few centimetres of water and leaving decor, caves and fish in place. Once in its new position, I refilled it with HMA-filtered water that comes out at 22C. The next day, I noticed a female was trapped by a male and they were still there the next day when I had to go on a work trip for a couple of days. When I returned, the male was on eggs, yay!
It seems that this big cool water change may have finally triggered them to get on with it, despite the disruption and potential stress caused by the move. However, it is not as if I haven't tried big cool water changes to get them going before, with no results for the last 3 years. Given that both groups have now spawned within a couple of weeks from each other, I am convinced the fish need to believe it is spawning season before triggers like water changes have any effect. Perhaps the series of storms we had over the last month or so convinced them. Who knows?
I think this latest spawn must have happened 9 days ago and the male now has a cave full of well-developed wrigglers. You can see him here in his cave - the yellow dot you can see by anal fin is a glimpse of a yolk sack (you'll have to take my word for it!).
- L306 cave
Meanwhile, the young from the previous spawn are growing well in a hang-on fry box on a diet of leaf litter and spirulina sticks. Here's some seen through the bottom of the fry box.
- L306 fry
I plan to set up a grow-out tank for them this weekend to free up the fry box for the new batch.
