(pics from) the notorious bubblenest incident…
I was kind of surprised when these two started spawning not so long after taking up residence. I think the water conditions were to their liking and that the plants help encourage them as well. For a week or 10 days all hell brook loose in the tank. Before that and after that its been generally pretty calm.
This is the male building his nest, a view from above of the nest (over the ambulia, I think those are the eyespots on the right). In the bottom picture you can get an idea of the blue/green/purple tones that light up the males plumage when he's on (this is about the standard level of blur for 75% of the pics).
The top two pics are the male and female. The books always seem to direct you to look for a pointier anal fin in the male and always note the redder throat. I still can't distinguish the point and they were both a bit washed out in the store -- the guy there pointed out to me how much longer the dorsal fin is on the male: it reaches the base of the tail. This seems to be true of the other trichogasters as well (moonlight, 3 spot, etc.).
The two bottom corners are the spawning embrace. She initiates it by coming over and bumping him in the side and then rolling over flat. It lasts for only a few seconds and ends with a wild full tank chase that freaks out all of the other fish (except the loaches -- loaches never freak out). If he catches her he'll give her a rather violent couple of hits. She uses obstacles to evade him until she can get back to the shelter of her ambulia grove. They'll repeat this over and over again, sometimes resting for no more than 10 or 15 minutes.
I was kind of surprised when these two started spawning not so long after taking up residence. I think the water conditions were to their liking and that the plants help encourage them as well. For a week or 10 days all hell brook loose in the tank. Before that and after that its been generally pretty calm.
This is the male building his nest, a view from above of the nest (over the ambulia, I think those are the eyespots on the right). In the bottom picture you can get an idea of the blue/green/purple tones that light up the males plumage when he's on (this is about the standard level of blur for 75% of the pics).
The top two pics are the male and female. The books always seem to direct you to look for a pointier anal fin in the male and always note the redder throat. I still can't distinguish the point and they were both a bit washed out in the store -- the guy there pointed out to me how much longer the dorsal fin is on the male: it reaches the base of the tail. This seems to be true of the other trichogasters as well (moonlight, 3 spot, etc.).
The two bottom corners are the spawning embrace. She initiates it by coming over and bumping him in the side and then rolling over flat. It lasts for only a few seconds and ends with a wild full tank chase that freaks out all of the other fish (except the loaches -- loaches never freak out). If he catches her he'll give her a rather violent couple of hits. She uses obstacles to evade him until she can get back to the shelter of her ambulia grove. They'll repeat this over and over again, sometimes resting for no more than 10 or 15 minutes.
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