Publication2 med aquascape Publication1cs complete | Page 84

dark vertical bars. In fact, the white appears more
as a grey colour, but the dramatic change gives
that first impression of white.
The male seemed to be doing his share of care, on-
ly until the other female came into view he would
become distracted and try his luck pair bonding.
The male would always come back and resume de-
fending duties.
The pair had deposited a few hundred eggs, but
over the couple of days, quite a large portion of
eggs were becoming infertile. This initially worried
me, but I observed the female doing a role reversal
and picking out the fertile eggs instead. Usually
cichlids will pick out the infertile eggs first; this en-
sures the fertile eggs don’t become infected by
fungus. The eggs hatch and become fee swimming
fry around day 6/7 where the pair will defend fero-
ciously if needed, even the large V. maculicauda
pair were easily dealt with.
Of interest, the Archocentrus complex appears to
share one characteristic in fry care that at some
stage they hang their fry in bunches off roots or
plants. In the aquarium, plants and roots will be
substituted with rocks, wood, even the aquarium
décor like filter pipes and heaters. I must admit I
did not personally witness this behaviour; perhaps I
just missed observing it?
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