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numerous areas before they settle on one place
which they will scour clean. This can be either bog-
wood, an area of rocks, the aquarium bottom or
side or in a cave such as a flowerpot. As they clean
these surfaces the female will have dummy runs at
spawning across her preferred site. Eventually egg
laying will begin. The female will lay a batch of 20
or so eggs and the male will follow close behind
fertilising the eggs. This continues until 3 – 500
eggs have been laid and fertilised. The roles in de-
fending the spawn are quite defined in the Black
belts. I have found through my own experience
that the male very definitely defends the territory
and the female defends the eggs (even from the
male). Occasionally these roles will be swapped
but instances of this are few and far between.
During brooding the male and female are both
very distinctive in colour with the white accentuat-
ed by black bars. They assiduously guard their
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