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After The male has trapped the female in his cave for almost a day, he is now breathing heavily, almost panting I would say. There were no eggs laid so I think it may have been just a practice run, but the female is fine ans swimming around and eating, yet he still hasn't come out of the cave but his tail is jumping when he breathes, that's how heavily he is breathing. Should I be worried? I don't think it is oxygen deprivation or the female would be experiencing this also right? Amy thoughts and should I be concerned?

just hope for the best. males in breeding mood don't eat much anyway.

I hope hes gonna be ok. Deff keep me posted. I like to see them spawn for you.

Will do, they have been courting a lot lately and I have seen them male latch onto the female a few times but no serious damage done besides what look like a few white patches or scratches.

when my male sits on eggs his tail seems to bounce up and down while looking in at him from the side. They are quite adept at hiding eggs from you. Just keep an eye on him and his cave. Don't be intrusive with the flashlight, but in about 7 days look into the back of the cave, you may be surprised.

so the male did today of unknown causes and no eggs were in the cave but they cold have been eaten by a few pesky L160 that are growing out if the female wasn't guarding them. Any reason he died? All water parameters are pristine and I have very high water flow and circulation. I am starting to get deterred from breeding these fish as every time I seem close, they take a turn for the worse.

maybe he got overworked and too much into breeding. then chemically something bad happened to him or internal damage somehow occurred in his attempts. just really bad luck i'd say. try again!

IDK, but like I said it was a huge bummer though . I think I may take a step back from lepora's for a while until my L91 get larger and try again then. but for the time being I think I will stick to what I know with bristle nose and maybe try my hand at hypans in the near future. On the upside though, I just received a nice little batch of Green dragons and have a count of about 39 of them survived.

yayfish24: Thanks for the awesome plecs again and I will hopefully in the future get some more l264 to breed, but I think I may hold off on leporas until I get that trio if you ever plan to retire them.

Also I noticed that he was a little red hue to him before he passed. Must have happened overnight but he was not like that when I fed them last night.

Man im sorry to hear that. Thats a big bummer. The l091s are gonna be a bigger challenge. As far as i know no one in north america has done it.

Well that sucks, but it does happen sometimes. Don't get discouraged because of the bad stuff. Just learn what you can from the situation and move on.

Try not to get to down. All keepers are unhappy when they lose catfish or any fish for that matter. When you are feeling a bit better the best you can do is recheck things with a clear head. The female might have just knocked him or he hurt himself over doing it. On the bright side you have something nice to enjoy in the little parcel arrived in green forms so enjoy them.

Thanks guys for all the support. Hopefully I will be back at it again in a few months when I get more l246.

yayfish24: Yeah so i have heard, well hopefully with our powers combined we can change that in a few years time.

JamesFish: I will always be happy about them! As long as I have another tank to focus on, I will be a happy man!

Im gonna try to make it happen in the spring. Just need a few more.