I have a 2-inch or so (probably hybrid) yellow lab in a 60 gallon tank that I set up in February. She's held unsuccessfully twice in the past, so I've been keeping an eye on her, hoping I'd get to see the next spawn.
Yesterday, I noticed that she was kind of hanging out in a little space in my stacked flagstone, circling around every now and then and kind of chasing everyone else away. Then I noticed that she had a little bump in her anal region and she was looking just a little bit 'chinny' and I wondered if I might have missed the spawn. I kept watching, and every now and then she'd leave her little cave and go find another yellow lab, and they'd circle each other slowly--but not in an agressive way. They'd do this little dance, and she'd go back to her cave alone to continue the routine. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw her pick something up off the rock and started wondering whether she'd drop an egg and then pick it up again. Then I realized that what she was doing was laying eggs and picking them up without a male to do the fertilizing.
It's like she's got the general idea, but hasn't quite figured out the part about having the male there to help her out.
Then, as I was writing this, I got up to see if she was still holding eggs (she is) and lo and behold, a pair of my rusties are spawning! They've picked out a flat rock and are taking turns nuzzling each other; I did see one egg laid and picked up by the female, so I know it's a real spawn. Funny, the male is one of the smallest rusties I have--probably only about 1 1/2 inches total length.
The interesting thing is, one of my syno. petricolas just swims up and gets into the middle of it, and they don't seem to notice. I guess he's looking for an omelette breakfast.
Yesterday, I noticed that she was kind of hanging out in a little space in my stacked flagstone, circling around every now and then and kind of chasing everyone else away. Then I noticed that she had a little bump in her anal region and she was looking just a little bit 'chinny' and I wondered if I might have missed the spawn. I kept watching, and every now and then she'd leave her little cave and go find another yellow lab, and they'd circle each other slowly--but not in an agressive way. They'd do this little dance, and she'd go back to her cave alone to continue the routine. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw her pick something up off the rock and started wondering whether she'd drop an egg and then pick it up again. Then I realized that what she was doing was laying eggs and picking them up without a male to do the fertilizing.
It's like she's got the general idea, but hasn't quite figured out the part about having the male there to help her out.
Then, as I was writing this, I got up to see if she was still holding eggs (she is) and lo and behold, a pair of my rusties are spawning! They've picked out a flat rock and are taking turns nuzzling each other; I did see one egg laid and picked up by the female, so I know it's a real spawn. Funny, the male is one of the smallest rusties I have--probably only about 1 1/2 inches total length.
The interesting thing is, one of my syno. petricolas just swims up and gets into the middle of it, and they don't seem to notice. I guess he's looking for an omelette breakfast.
