Spawning question

[Bizzer]

How long does Apisto spawning take? 2-3 days ago my female turned a lot yellower than she use to be. She has been chasing her tank mates away from her cave and generally behaving more aggressively. I don't think she has spawned yet as every 15 minutes or so she'll leave her cave, search out the male, and do a little shimmy. So far he has not been interested in her advances which pisses her off. She then chases him aggressively. Luckily my tank has many hiding places so it's never prolonged. She is about and inch and he is 2+. I've had them both for about a month.

 

[Mike Wise]

From initiation, to acceptance, to egg-laying it normally takes 15 - 20 minutes. The problem that I see is that your female is initiating but the male isn't accepting, so no egg-laying. Patience, or another accepting male, is needed now.

 

[Bizzer]

Thanks Mike. I'll go with patience. I'm hoping once she does spawn she'll just protect the relatively small cave area that she is currently protecting from the other fish and leave the male alone. The tank is a 60cm cube.

 

[Bizzer]

Update:
Yesterday I noticed the female escorting her free swimming fry out of her cave. This afternoon I fed the tank (community tank) BBS. The Fry's were eating them and had full orange/red bellies.