ABORTED MISSION!

[hohm44]

I hava a pair that have laid eggs several times in my planted 55 gallon, getting to the wriggler stage the past two times. I have been unsuccessful in getting them to spawn in my 20 gallon bb breeding tank, and I usually give up and put them back in the main tank, where they promptly lay eggs again. I know this is a familiar pattern, and stories like this appear on this forum all the time. But something strange happened last week. I had them in the breeding tank, and the female started showing all the sure signs of preparing to lay eggs. At last they were going to breed in the appropriate tank! Twitching, franticly cleaning a space to lay the eggs, her egg "tube" was pronounced and protruding, and then...the male and her started fighting. they do occasionally go at it a bit, as the male is quite aggressive, but never in the middle of spawning! Talk about killing the mood! Since then, they have gotten along fine but have shown no signs of wanting to try again. Has anybody else ever seen this kind of situation before? What about the eggs she was getting ready to lay? What happened to them? Any insight on this would be appreciated, as this is a new one on me!

[kaceyo]

I think one or the other can get too excited sometimes. I've seen an anxious male bully the female because he wants to get on with things while she wants to clean for hours. And it definitly can put a stop to the whole spawning process.
They are experienced so you should get a spawn out of them if your patient. Do lots of large wc's while they are in the breeding tank and maybe try different things like leaving the light off, changing the water level, lower the temp etc till you find out what they like. Some pairs are more tempermental than others.
Good luck,

Kacey

[hohm44]

The thing is, in this case, the female was the one hurriedly cleaning and twitching, the male wasn't too interested this time.

[Bilbo_wh]

Light a few candles and put some Barry Manilow on?