Cave trapping with pic

nesolb · Post by **nesolb** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 12:16 pm

Hi everyone, hope you've all had a good Christmas and New Year. I've been away from the forum for a little while with work commitments and what not so I won't bore you with the details.

About 6 weeks ago I bought a 6x2x2 tank to house some more Tropheus I'm breeding but I decided that the location for the tank was better suited to the Zebra's. I made the switch about a month ago, which was made more difficult since I'd managed to have a spawn in the existing tank, and everything went fine; although I wasn't happy with the decor. I decided, about 2 weeks ago, to change the decor around and to my suprise I interupted a cave trapping - d'oh!!! (called myself stupid for a little while).

I went to feed the zebbies yesterday and I noticed that the only male to have taken up a cave residence didn't come to the front of the cave as usual. I wipped out the digital camera and took the following pic:

I've checked again today and he still has her trapped in there. One question I have though is - What is the turn around time for zebra's that spawn back to back?

I ask this cos I have Tropheus spawning back to back every 4 - 6 weeks, they carry for 3 - 4 weeks, and their turn around time (interest in spawning again) seems to be 2 weeks. I'm only asking cos when I interupted the cave trapping when I moved the decor it's 2 weeks to the day that the male now has a female trapped. Is there something in this or is it just a coincidence.

I'll keep you posted on the trapping, fingers crossed it'll be a success.

zebra046 · Post by **zebra046** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:25 pm

male can breed every week while a female has a 4-5 week turn around, good luck

Shell231 · Post by **Shell231** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:36 pm

Thats interesting to know!

People have had spawns taking place while fry still in cave as well i think i read somewhere on here

zebra046 · Post by **zebra046** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 12:08 am

Shell,
I have never witnissed that event, because I would remove the fry 7 days later, the earliest is 5 days this is the normal amount of time they start hatching but lately I just leave everything eggs and fry and some manage to survive.

nesolb · Post by **nesolb** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 6:04 pm

Thanks for the info zebra046.

I've checked the males cave again today and the female has gone. The male appears to be guarding some eggs but I couldn't see clearly enough so I can't be sure. I don't want to pester him too much so I'll just keep a watchful, but not overbaring, eye on him. He's showing the same characteristics as the males from my first spawn so I'm confident he is guarding

nesolb · Post by **nesolb** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:46 am

Well the little fella was guarding, I think I saw about 3 eggs/wrigglers at one point but I can't be sure.

Anyhow, last weekend by the time I checked again he'd kicked them all out.

I was lucky enough to catch one of them, being the only one that was actually in view; I assume the others were thrown round the tank with the current, and I put it in a fry trap. I kept checking on the little wriggler and was gobsmacked to find the fry trap being thrown round the tank, f'king suction cups kept failing.

Well, you guessed it, the little wriggler didn't make it and I was left extremely pissed off.

Do you think there's any chance the other wrigglers that were kicked out made it?