multipunctatus breeding behaviour

[jeremy]

I've had 5 multipuncts in my Malawi tank for 9 months now and they are now quite alot bigger than they were. So I guess they are probably about full grown now.
I have a pair of protomelas in the tank which breed readily and I have observed them spawning with alot of attention from the cats. But they just seem to be eating the eggs and not really doing anything themselves! I have seen them suddenly doing nose to tail at high speed during eating the Prot eggs. So far the female Prot just seems to loose her eggs from her mouth after about a week.
Also I occasionally see the cats following each other for quite long periods, one of these, usually the front one, has a much bigger belly than the slimmer fish following. Is the front fish likely to be a gravid female?

Any idea whats going on?

Cheers

Jeremy

[pturley]

The front fish is the female the one trailing behind is the male.

When they breed, the male will dart forward, wrap his body around the nose of the female and shiver (releasing milt). The female will then drop a cloud of 10-50 eggs for the cichlids to pick up.

When breeding as a brood-parasite the female is much more likely to release eggs when she is able to steal a cichlid egg or two. Quite often the male will wrap around the female and she won't release any eggs.

When spawning on the subtrate, there are often several "dry runs" prior to the female actually casting eggs.

Good luck with your fish.

[CEfire]

I have also heard that Syno Multi. must be grown out for around 2-3 years before they will be able to produce viable offspring. I am not totally sure about this so Im sure someone can back this up/refute this.....

[pturley]

My F1s started spawning at about 2 years old. I have heard of some people getting them to spawn by about 18 months but I'd say this would be pushing it a bit.

[jeremy]

Just to say thanks guys.

Nice to know that I will need to keep an eye on them in the near future as I guess they are just practising at the moment!

Cheers

Jeremy