Is she full of eggs?

Gday all.I managed to find somebody to swap a couple of my male commons over for a couple of mature females. And I have a suspicion that atleast one of them may be gravid. She is about 9cms long and is fairly relentlessly trying to get into my biggest males cave. But the other male in the tank seems to be guarding the alphas cave entrance. Is this normal behaviour? Should I put the other male into a separate tank?Heres some pics tell me what you think.[img][/img][img][/img]
Cheers for any advice.

hey axle. wow thats a good swap you got there. that girl is huge. and in my oppinion she is definately loaded with eggs. how many females/males do you have in your tank? sounds like the male that is stopping her from going in the others cave is just competing for her attention. if i was in your situation i would either move him to a separate tank untill she spawns with the male she wants to, or i would make sure that the problem male has his own cave/area for him to stay in. once your males have claimed a cave as their own, they shouldnt really venture around to others. if you plan on leaving him in there with them, then make sure his cave cant see the other one. put plants and things between them and angle them away from eachother. do some cool water changes and im sure that this girl will spawn for you in no time. =)

Hi zane thanks for the reply. Id been keeping an eye on the situation and decided last night to move the other male to a different tank. So now there is only one alpha male and three females( all of different sizes but all quite fat)in the tank together. I did a 50% cold water change today and within one hour the female in the pics was in the cave with him. As she came out I had a peek in and there is a heap of eggs in there. I cant believe it, and now there is a different female trapped in with him.
I cant wait to see if there is any more eggs in there.
And hopefully he knows what to do and is a good dad.

Good to hear you've had a win axle, sometimes my females will be so keen to breed that when I re-introduce the males cave all 3 of my females will have a look at the cave with the possibility of a double or even triple spawn.
And now 1 of your females have spawned you can pretty much guarantee the others will follow suit. I hope you've got at least one spare tank for the youngins, your gonna need it.
J

Yeah I know I thought I was onto a good thing until the male kicked out the eggs last night ( well over 100 eggs ) and although I carefully nettted them and put them into a strainer type device I dont know about my chances of their survival. I have a very slight current running through it with air bubbles. But I dont know weather or not I should hav the eggs rolling around or stationary.
My guess was stationary so Ive set it up that way and now Im hopin for the best. Fingers crossed. Any advice for me will be much appreciated.
If you dont like my chances of any surviving please let me know.
Thanks in advance.

You'll be right axle, you've got the right idea anyway with putting them
in a net and current, only other thing I could suggest is if have air pump with
a variable speed so you can turn it down real low handy add a small air stone to it and put the stone in the net.
It happen to me the first time as well , but that was half my fault.
Good air and current helps keep fungus's from attacking the eggs.
J

Air stone. Will do
Thanks again Kurosaki your advice is really appreciated.

No probs axle, it should take between 5-7 days for the eggs to hatch+ if you see any eggs going white and fuzzy try to pick them out( a pair of pointed long nose tweezers are perfect for the job).
Let us know how you get on in a weeks time.
J

If and when they do start hatching how long should I leave em in the strainer for? should I keep the air and current the same as now? Also should I wait for the egg sacks to disapear before I feed the fry?
Also Kurosaki I think you were right with the triple spawn thing. The eggs that were kicked out of the cave were from 2 females as far as I can work out And then yesterday the last female ventured into the cave and did her thing. The cave is now chockers again. And to top it off the male seems to be doin his bit to fan and protect this time. So far so good anyway.I lost count at 140 eggs in the strainer along with the small batch in the cave I am bound to get atleast some survivers now.I went and got a small tank off my bro yesterday and purchased a sponge filter which I now have running in the tank to get it ready for the fry.

You can leave them in the strainer for as long as you like ( sure saves time catching them later)it's leaving them with dad you'll have to get the hang of.
As for feeding, you'll start to notice when they are looking like fish( if they are still super young and hungry they 'll still find something to munch) I usually start with just a little bit of flake, bigger bits are preference - then you actually notice when they start eating and the food disappears, then algae bits , but just feed again when you can't see any food.
And the new little tank - I'd just syphon off some water from the bigger tank , it;s all ready aged and the same conditions as what the egg/ fry will be used to .
Have fun.
J

All the eggs have hatched. Except for the three that I removed cos they went white. They all hatched a few days ago and now all the egg sacs have disappeared and just a few fish a starting to find the food. I havnt lost any yet and they all seem to be doin well. And believe it or not the commons in my community tank have also spawned at the same time which have also just hatched. Babys everywhere!
Cheers to all that have given help and advice.

Like I said axle "you'll be right ", really good to hear it's all panned out good for you .
Enjoy the task of raising baby fish
J

well done mate