could my Trachelyopterus galeatus be spawning ?

[dayglowfroggy]

I have had Trachelyopterus galeatus for 4 months now they were a sexed pair from pier aquatics .
In this time they have grown allot and I would say they are full grown with the female at around 8.5 -9 inches and the male at more like 6.5-7 inches.
They have become very tame and competitive for food the female even takes it from the surface .
I have been feeding a very varied diet and they seem to eat anything and be out scavenging the moment any food is in the tank .
Last night they had some fresh prawns for the first time (but not much) other than that nothing has changed .
Today they are both staying in a low cave and have not come out for food or anything else ,they have evicted the two rope fish who liked this hiding place and they do seem to have been thrashing against each other in there a bit.
I have not seen any evidence of eggs yet but can't think of any other reason for this strange behavior .
The diet up till now has been chopped earth worms 3-4 times a week ,spectrum community ,Hikari cichlid gold/staple,JMC catfish pellets,freeze dried river shrimp,pleco wafers and blood worm once a week.
I was given a sample of the new pleco logs by tetra (I think, they are not boxed )look like guinea pig pooh on Monday so they have tried this too.
Up until last week they had a steady supply of jewel cichlid eggs every two weeks but I gave the jewels away ,these cats are the only thing I have ever found that could stop the jewels eggs from hatching.
Any opinions welcome .

[Marc van Arc]

Hello & welcome to PC.
T. galeatus have internal fertilization, so you shouldn't expect any eggs shortly. They may have mated (heard any grunting sounds?), but on the other hand they may just be stuffed and thus unwilling to show themselves. I reckon you have to wait a few weeks wrt any eggs.

[dayglowfroggy]

They have made loads of grunting sounds since a few weeks after I got them so they have been doing that since before Christmas at first i didn't think it was them .
I don't think they were stuffed they didn't get that much last night and even when they are stuffed and have fat bellies they are still out for more the next day but I do try to make sure they don't get too stuffed in one sitting .
Thanks for input so far .
I have often used this site as a re source and I think it is the best there is .

[Marc van Arc]

Any chance of one (or more) pictures of your specimens?

[dayglowfroggy]

They won't come out of there cave for a photo got a head shot but it's not very informative,however i have just looked at your post "some wood cats" and mine look identical to the top two pictures maybe more like the second one down if being fussy though there is a slight difference between my male and female .
The female has a lighter saddle and the male is more mottled .
Will try to get a decent shot when they do actually come out .