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My T. galeatus are trying very hard to mate at the moment. When they meet they try to wrap themselves around eachother.
While doing so they make low noises. Both specimen stand head down. To my (and their?) regrets it are mostly the males that are on the move, thus encountering themselves in a very short and rather useless embrace. The females sit tight and aren't bothered in the least. However, as they too will swim at nights, I'm sure some matings should be succesfull.
I'll keep you posted.

Fascinating. At what point in the encounter do the males realize they've got it wrong? Why don't they know before the clutch? I thought there were signals or hormones or something. (Do you think the females are chuckling to themselves?)

Deborah

you might want to try a massive waterchange (like 2/3 or so) and use a gardenhose-showerhead to disperse the fresh water; also make sure the newly added water is a few degrees cooler.
imitate rain!

it might do the trick.....after all; many SA catfish spawn right at the start of the rainy season, and that's pretty soon!
these wildcaught Woodcats sure have got the inner clock up and running on scedule.

feeding with unusual stuff might stimulate things too; earthworms, black or white mosquitolarvae, tubifex, gammarus etc. the first 2 are the best.

deb wrote:Fascinating. At what point in the encounter do the males realize they've got it wrong? Why don't they know before the clutch? I thought there were signals or hormones or something. (Do you think the females are chuckling to themselves?)

Deb,
It puzzles me that they easily avoid other species (like T. fisheri) and yet act so clumsy amongst eachother. If there are any signals they are misinterpreted for sure .
Male encounters last very short but are frequent because for some reason they keep on fooling themselves. And the females? They're laughing their heads off (figuratively speaking ).

Most likely the females have released a lot of pheromones to attract males from all around; the males only know, and care, that they're close to the source of the pheromones. The females control the "window of opportunity" so they are in no hurry and will wait for nightfall before venturing out, but the males have to Get There First, or they miss their opportunity to breed.

That's also why the males jump eachother - they're close to the source of the pheromones so they're frantic *plus* it's far better to jump another male by mistake than it would be to miss a male-looking female...

That's quite an interesting remark Mike. I will surely find out if things happen at nights by using an infrared night viewer, just like some 20 years ago when I sat in complete darkness and was watching my tank for hours. However, I could do with less sleep then.....hope I don't doze off

Wow an infrared night viewer! the things we do just to watch catfish..