platy ben

Ok im kind of excited now lol.

About a week ago i added 3 cockatoo cichlids to my 45G (1 male 2 females)

Sadly the smaller "runt" female passed away.

When i first posted pics on here i kept saying that i havent seen a female as plump as mine in any pictures.

Turns out now ive got a normal size female who isnt plump, guarding a cave and building a wall of substrate out side. Im so excited but i heard that cockatoo cichlid eggs have a tendancy of getting fungus, so we'll see.

platy ben

Heres a pic of her with just her head poking out, the little tiny mound infront of her is her wall of substrate don't laugh, its a work in process .

Shes got her hands a bit full on guarding it though, my male doesnt seem to bothered, hes just buzzing around, without a care in the world.

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cerianthus

Pretty big for female or is it the pic? Usually female will guard the eggs and male will defend their territory.

platy ben

Shes about an inch long, not counting her tail.
My male doesnt seem to have a territory and he definitly doesnt guard around the cave, at the moment its just the female and whenever something comes near the door she'll scare it away.
Shes doing a great job of guarding the eggs, making her wall outside the cave and guarding her territory by herself, the male doesnt really have anything to do with her, she will display to him every now and again and then he will go into the cave and come out again once every hour or so

platy ben

Just an update, the females still guarding her cave with guns blazing so i think shes still got eggs in there somewhere.
Her wall has become bigger outside and i shined a torch in too see what was going on and all i can see she has dug out a massive pit in the left side of the cave, i thinks its about an inch deep, and she hovers over that whenever shes in the cave.

Her behaviours promising but im still not 100% sure if she has eggs in there or not.

platy ben

Sadly the eggs must have got fungus or something ate them, i think they got fungus.
She stopped guarding the cave 1 day before the eggs were due to hatch, so i think thats it until hopefully she spawns again