December - Hill Country Cichlid Club

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at all. I enjoyed watching them slowly develop.
After a year, one of the individuals began transforming
from silver to a light gray. Over a few
months the coloration became a darker and darker
gray until eventually the body was light black. The
speckling became a bit more prominent during this
time frame as well. There were still no signs of real
aggression but this developing male had one side of
the tank to himself and the other two tended to keep
to the other side. All three would move freely without
any aggression issues, but the tendency of the
group was to stay on their own sides. The male was
really coming into his own in regards to his coloration
and was now in full bloom. This did not translate
into any courting behavior though. Several
months went by and the other two fish were starting
to spar somewhat. As time drew on, a full out battle
between the two females ensued. The two females
spent several weeks rushing at each other and jaw
locking. I was observing this closely as I could not
afford to lose any of the fish. Despite the battle
royal no visible damage was being done to either
fish. Eventually this activity subsided and one of
the females was now hanging out with the male in
his rock pile. By no means were they exhibiting
pairing behavior, but were definitely getting along
enough to allow each other in the same area. The
other fish stayed in her half of the tank. I have not
seen any fighting between those two since that one
frenzied period. The male was now in breeding coloration
at all times and could be seen displaying to
the female often. He would sashay across the tank
and court the other female as well. This went on for
several weeks before I actually witnessed a female
with buccal cavity full of eggs. Over several
months I had a female holding three times and never
more than a week. The next time it happened I decided
I would strip the eggs and tumble them. Unfortunately
there has not been a next time. While
the male has maintained his vibrant hues and occasionally
shimmies up to a female, there has been
almost zero courting behavior.
More time passes I determine it is time to start tinkering
with some water parameters to see if I can
trigger a spawning. The nervousness I exhibited a
couple of years ago is now gone and I am not too
concerned about playing mad scientist. Many fish
will spawn during a rainy season because they have
learned that along with the rain come enhanced food
sources. The first thing I do is to slowly lower the
salt content in the tank. Once lowered, I would
maintain it for at least a month. By the time I have
tweaked it down as far as I felt comfortable with;
the salt levels were about 25% of the original quantity.
This wasn’t working. Next I varied the diet
and begin feeding mosquito larvae I was collecting
in a bucket outside. I also increased the frequency
of the protein flake. With little effect, I tried a different
brand of food, again, with no luck. The next
factor to alter was temperature. I began by lowering
the temperature of the heater and eventually turned
it off. The lowest temperature the water reached
was about 18C. I also proceeded to alter the salt
content again as I was experimenting with the temperature.
Once this failed to trigger any responses I
began to crank the temperature up and had the
heater up to 31C before deciding not to go any
higher. I will admit while I was frustrated it was an
enjoyable challenge as well. These fish were making
me work to entice a spawning and I was having
fun trying to outsmart them. After many months of
this I still had nothing as far as spawns, but still had
3 healthy fish that appeared no worse for wear.
I reached out to a friend who wasn’t having any
luck and he was able to pass along 4 females from
his group all in the name of getting this species to
breed. While there has been increased courting behavior
only one spawn has been witnessed and it