9/14/06- Female released in the morning. By noon female had a few nipped fins and no spawning activity noted. Black water extract was added to help make the mood. By 5:45pm spawning activity was noticed. At 8:30pm noticed female in one side of tank and male under nest of babies on the other. Female was taken out and treated with an indian almond leaf to help aid in healing fins. Male left in tank to take care of nest, but bed time the male had moved the nest under the styrofoam cup. Doesn't look like a large amount of eggs in the nest.
9/15/06- Male had a very big belly and not many eggs left in the tank.
9/16/06- Fry began to hatch, very small spawn.
9/18/06- Looks like about 10 tiny fry.
9/19/06- Fry started free swimming today so father was taken out. Found one fry dead on the bottom (looked deformed).
9/26/06- Fry are now a week old from hatch date and so far I counted 16 of the little guys (more than what I thought). They have been eating Microworms and I will be introducing brine shrimp soon then other foods. I have added at least 2 gallons this week to the tank along with siphoning out waste from the bottom.
12/16/06- I am not happy about the growth or development of this spawn. I will be giving them a little more time to show me they are worth keeping otherwise I will be scraping this spawn and trying again.
1/15/07- Spawn has been scraped will try again in the future.