# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Cichlids >  Nannacara anomala female in breeding colours

## celticfish

Here are some pictures of the female in breeding colours.
Curiously there seems to be only 10 to 20 eggs/wrigglers seen in the cave.
I suspect the male could not get into the cave do the job right!
She fits nicely into the cave entrance.
The male is about 50% more in verticle height.

Start of the picture series... enjoy!
























Anyways, I hope the fry will turn free swimming to continue this series...  :Opps:

----------


## leeruisheng

Congrats celticfish. Any photos of the male in his glory?

----------


## celticfish

The male is hiding in "full glory" from the female!  :Laughing: 
I couldn't take anything decent as he was at the back of the tank all the time.
He only made a dash out for a bite and dash to the back again at feeding time.
I will try to get some picture of him so there is a reference for both sexes.

Bad news... as of yesterday the brood has disappeared.
I can only hope its one of those moving the wrigglers around thing that mum did.

----------


## exotic_idiot

Bro, relax.. Once they start breeding, will keep on breeding..
I like your cave. Did you diy yourself?

----------


## benny

Very nice! Some good capture too!

Cheers,

----------


## benetay

Nicely taken! Congrats on the spawn, even if they consume the eggs etc, they will spawn again. No worries. 

Cheers!

----------


## celticfish

Hey, you guys are pulling my leg, right?
I thought the picture were not quite there yet for me to want to water mark them!  :Opps: 
The eyes could have been sharper for that "looking at you!" look.
I think the problem was being too close and having to tilt the lens to get the perspective in most of the shots.
Notice how sharp the cave entrance is?  :Embarassed: 

I cheated on the sequence though...  :Grin: 
Just placed them in this sequence to "tell the story".

Glade you guys enjoyed it.
Let's see if I can get some time to shot some more this weekend.
Got a 4 ft rack that's wrecking my head with ideas and plans at the moment.  :Exasperated:

----------


## celticfish

Thankfully the fight happened when I was around.
The female normally goes out from the cave on forays to nip the male a then zip back to the wrigglers.
This time, while I was doing maintenance, she decided to stay out and literally tried to kill him.
I think she must be banking that the "keeper" will have to do something.. smart girl!  :Well done: 
She bit the dorsal and and hung on like a "redeo cowfish"!  :Laughing: 
After some minutes repeating the redeo number you can tell she was totally shack and would probably end up in fish heaven.
So I had to remove the male.
She is now with about one third of the brood.
Cannot figure out why the brood size got smaller.

You can tell from the pictures the photographers was terribly "kan cheaong" (anxious).
So please excuse the bad shots, again...  :Grin: 

Picture sequence as happened.
Not re-ordering here!

----------


## sgbetta

Hey bro lucky she fight in front of you.If she is to fight the male when *you* are not around....1 party might be killed.....It would be pity to loss sure a nice pair of fish.Anyway congrat to your new born...... :Grin:

----------


## celticfish

Sadly the last brood was "lost" overnight.
Here's another brood.
Hope these make it this time!

----------


## CK Yeo

ooo. Looks like the female is quite badly beaten up. 
Congrats again!

ck

----------


## celticfish

If you think she looks beat-up you should see the male!  :Laughing: 
Jokes aside, his eye got bitten and a tear formed.
Now its all clouded but I hope it recovers.
I've noticed that fish eyes are quite tough and able to fully regenerate bad wounds.

----------


## genes

Thats pretty quick. Slightly over a week after reintroducing the male if i am not wrong. Great series of photos!  :Well done:  Not easy to shoot brooding female with fries. All the pictures are also very sharp and clear.

----------


## iwishweallcouldwin

very nice pictures! all the best in raising this brood! keep us posted!

----------


## CK Yeo

I guess they like it rough...  :Grin: 

ck

----------


## genes

My feel is that these species seems to be particularly aggressive towards each other during the courting and brood caring period. My previous males kept killing the female in a 1ft tank.

----------


## Cacatuoides

thats a lot of fries for one brood!! Congrats on the spawn and hope the male recovers speedily  :Wink:

----------


## trident

celticfish,
That's a nice big brood. Hope you get to keep them this time.
But the poor parents, they have to get beaten up every time they spawn?
Sounds terrible, but I guess that's how they are created.  :Smile:

----------


## celticfish

Yup! They pretty much do this *every* time they want to do the nasty...
Even in a 2 ft tank they are not safe from one another.

So, a word of caution to people who want to keep these guys.
You will need other tanks to hold individual sexes.
This way they can recover from one another.  :Exasperated: 

Though they go at one another to the death they are tolerant of other fish in their tanks.
I suspect smaller sized fish will not be harassed/harmed by them.
Every time food goes in the tank they are too busy eating to bother other fish.
Greedy little buggers!  :Grin:

----------


## exotic_idiot

Use breeder box instead to hold either sex..
Very sharp and clear pictures you have taken..
And plenty of fries.. Good luck in raising them bro. :Smile:

----------


## celticfish

Picture of the male as requested.
BTW its full breeding colours for him too.
They are kept in adjacent tanks and have been flaring at one another forever!
I was hoping this would keep the maternal instinct up and stop the female from having the brood for lunch.
Seems to work!  :Smile: 







Face-off! (with fries!  :Laughing: )



Back to the topic.

----------


## fishking

Very nice pictures taken...!!!

----------


## exotic_idiot

Wow... Full view of your male, pretty handsome green metalic colour...
I like it....!!! :Smile: 
No wander, one of my bro very interested to get this fish :Grin:

----------


## CK Yeo

Why not remove the female and raise the fries artificially?

ck

----------


## celticfish

Just did that.  :Grin: 
As you said the fry grow so sloooowly....
Trying to get another spawn.
Cannot waste the nice rainy weather we have now!

----------


## exotic_idiot

The fries should able to live well by themself now...



> Cannot waste the nice rainy weather we have now!


Time for me to make use of the weather too but more fries = more space needed!!! :Roll Eyes:

----------


## celticfish

More fry = More space, indeed!

Here are some crappy photos of the new spawn.
Had to shoot at an angle to the glass and full direct flash...
Mum's out with the armada now.  :Grin:

----------


## CK Yeo

OMG. I already have my hands full with one batch. What are you going to do with so many fries??

ck

----------


## ash

don't underestimate the fries, they are faster than apistogramma fries on a diet of tetra pro colour flakes only.

----------


## celticfish

Honestly, I don't know! 
Both females are with fry at the moment.
If the last brood is an indication they should be pared down to the 20 to 30 something range each.
Hopefully a little more manageable size.
Grow out though is a different animal altogether.

----------


## SCOPE

wow...now you got another factory on this! congrates

----------


## celticfish

@ ash,
I will try the Tetra Pro.
They are currently on decap BS eggs and BBS.

OT.
For those interested, C328 has a pair in the usual Apisto tank area.
Price? Very reasonable.

----------

