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On the previous three spawns I've had, I could see the male - after the female being trapped inside - sticking his tail oout of the cave for about 15 seconds, then disappearing into the cave for about 5 seconds, before returing with his tail hanging out for 15 seconds, and so on.

i have interpreted this as the female laying one egg, then the male fertilizing it before giving her room to lay another egg, then going in to fertilize it, and so on.

But this tim he's got a female in the cave, but is hanging on to the roof of the cave, with his snout facing out of the cave. The female is still in there.

So what's normal? Did I only witness the foreplay on the last occations, or ...? what would be normal?

Me and a friend is planning a custom made cave with a buildt in web cam so that we can see what's happening in the there - I just have to find out what's going on in there, what's normal and what's not. He will design the cave, and I will provide the fish and web cam. Hopefully we can record what's going on seen from the inside of the cave....

Hi McEve

The first behaviour with the male moving from the mouth to the back of the cave is normal as far as I am aware. The male sitting on the roof of the cave would suggest to me that he is not at this time interested in breeding. DId the female enter the cave of her own accord or was she enticed in by the male.

I have seen one of my females enter teh cave swiftly when the male is feeding. The male will then sit outside the cave as if he is waiting for her to leave.

is she is still in there?

rob

Hi Rob,

The female litterally forced her way in to his cave. he turned around after a while, and everything looked like a normal spawn- but the female is out and nothing has happened.

A man with a headache... who's ever heard of such a thing huh

Sounds like the female wanted to get jiggy and the poor wee males just a bit knackered!!

Don't think it it anything to woory about. SO long as he doen't try and get into the cave with another male you'll be fine!!!

LOL

I wonder if that is the problem with mine

You're not the first one to suspect that's what's wrong INXS