male SF green dragon X female LF calico_Finally Spawned!!

I've been waiting for this pair to spawn for a while now, and how rewarding to be there to witness it happen!  This is the father's first spawn and the mother's second.  The mother has been gravid at least 2 months now i'd say.

My boyfriend and I were laying in bed watching them from afar.  The male was in the cave and the female resting on top of it.  Finally, he let her in and they were in there together for about 8-10 minutes.  He came out first followed by her.  He quickly (and quite meanly IMO) chased her off.  Then he started fanning right outside the cave entrance.  After a couple minutes he went back in the cave and has been in there ever since as far as I know.

The female still has an egg attached to her.  Has anyone ever seen this before?  The photo was taken roughly 2 hours after the spawn.  It's crazy how skinny females are right after they spawn!

I plan to keep and raise these fish in a separate tank to keep a close eye on their development and coloring.  I can't find documentation of these two morphs breeding before.

Also, I am nervous about the dad because of one thing.  I mistakenly fed some sinking pellets (I was attempting to feed a grouping of mystery snails.)  Even though the lights were out it still created a mini feeding frenzy.  I hope this didn't scare him too much (especially with this being his first spawn) and cause something to go wrong.

Mother, notice the egg?

Today the dad abandoned the cave so I am again hatching the eggs myself. As long as they're fertile everything should be ok. They should hatch by the 22nd.

Congrats, cant wait for progress

Well 4 of the eggs fungused and I removed them  And so far 7 have hatched!  I can see the spines in the other eggs, I feel like they all should hatch.  It seems like they are taking forrrreeevvvveerrrr to do so though.

They have all hatched! I think I counted 62. I did a 25% water change on the "holding tank."

Congrats on your hatch  

Thank you, they seem to be doing well today (1 day old.) I see just a couple that I believe are albino (they don't have black eyes.) It's hard to tell when they are this little because they don' develop their pigment for another day or two.

My boyfriend was able to snap this great shot of the fry this morning! They are 2 days old now and most are a grey color. It looks like 2 might be albino, but I'll have to wait a few more days to know for sure.

They sure are looking good   think I might have a look for some adults dont think I can wait for my baby's to grow  

they look great

Here they are at three days old. There a lot more albinos than I originally thought.







belly shots!