I find the temperature has to be at least mid 70sF to get any spawnings. Up around 78F and spawnings are one right after one. Each spawning will yield arounds 25-40 youngsters. The male will guard and fan the new fry for 1-2 weeks. I have no idea what the fry eat during that time. I do not see them come out to feed, nor do I see the male bring any food back to the cave. I do not see the male even come out and feed for himself for at least a week after the fry hatch. Maybe it happens after the lights are out. Fry seem to finally come out and go free swimming at almost a 3/4" size. Then it just takes forever to get them any larger. Plus a lot of the youngsters will die during this time period. Now you know why every one seems to sell 3/4" fish and very rarely 2" fish. A 2" fish can easily be close to a year old.

Lots of people can have these fish spawn for them. Here is what happens. I know because I have taped it. The male spend lots of time squaring away his little space for spawning. The female comes around, checks it out, and disappears on a regular basis. Eventually, the male is positive he has it right. He will take up a position where his head is in the cave or dugout spot with his backend sticking out. He will have the tail fin flared out and slowly waves it back and forth. It is obviously his way of advertising he has the greatest everything that a female could want. His waving tail says " females welcome". The female will come and check it out. Then, as nearly as I can tell, the female acts like a cory and collects the male seed. Then she disappears into the hidey hole the male has made. She is in there for about 30 seconds to a minutes. When she comes out, she is gone, never to return. She may hang around nearby, but I have never seen one go into the cave a second time. After about the 10th spawning, I decided to check and see if the female really did get all her part done in just the one descent into the cave. That is the picture above that shows the eggs and some plant junk in the cave. I put the cave back in the same spot but the male did not go back to the cave. After about an hour I pulled the cave out and set it up with an airstone to get some circulation going. It took several days for the eggs to fungus, telling me they were fertile before I messed with them.

After the female lays the eggs, (and supposedly fertilizes them also), the rest of the rearing job is up to the male. It is the male who fans and protects the eggs.