Single Female spawning

[waters10]

I have a female spawning on my tank for the first time. I don't think she's paired with any male. Never noticed her swimming with any other fish and she's on her own laying the eggs. I noticed she was shimming and cleaning the sponge filter tube lately, but I wasn't expecting her to spawn! Didn't even know she was a female ...

How common is this? Should I expect her to pair up soon? Since she's mature already, can she grow more? (She's like 4.5" now).

Thanks

[Roxanne]

Mature females usually have eggs to offload every now & then. Even If there's a male to pair up with, they may/may not do "it". I have 2 females who lay eggs, shoo boys away from them, then eat them....go figure:alien:

Rox

[poconogal]

I've had females who did that too, guess its pretty common.

[waters10]

Cool, thanks!

Another one came up and started eating the eggs. The female tried to defend for a second, but the other one is the dominant fish and the female just let it go ... Let's see if she pairs up in the future!

I hope she grow some more!

[MostlyDiscus]

Hi Waters10,



I would guess that she is a very young female. I have seen this before where a youngster would offload eggs and they were quickly eaten by young males. With no mate to help defend the eggs she wont bother either. Raise the tank temp to offset the spawning urgh. It may be too late at this point but if you can get the feeding back to a good level she could still grow some. Hope that helps,

Ed