Cacatuoides female covering enterance

[DBlauj]

I know that she laid eggs about 4 days ago (checked) but like I have stated in a previous post I have harder water then cacatuoides would like to breed in. I believe this is her 2nd or 3rd time laying eggs but this is the first time I've seen her kick sand to cover a part of the entrance. Does this mean I have wigglers, is she trying to limit the amount of space so the male can't enter?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
The female will often do this to make the entrance really small and presumably make herself feel more secure, it is one reason for having sand as a substrate. My suspicion would be that she does have wrigglers, I'd avoid peaking, and hopefully she should appear with the fry in a couple more days.

cheers Darrel

 

[DBlauj]

Thanks for the info Darrel. She is still guarding the cave somewhat fiercely, mainly towards the other females and the male. She doesn't seem to care for the neons or the otos though. This the longest period of time I've seen her stay in the cave so I'm hoping there are fry with her (about 5 days now). Another of the females has shown spawning colors but she's looked like this for a while now. Because of a more dominate female would she be unwilling to spawn? They are 6 months going on 7 months but they are not as big as the dominate female.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
The females will spawn in the same tank, what you will find is the dominant females will accumulate all the fry from the sub-dominant females over time, and they will try and and steal back small groups from the edge of the fry crowd. I had a 1m:7f harem at one point, and the only reason I stopped at 7 females was that I ran out of floor space.

cheers Darrel