Holding Saulosi.....I'm pretty sure

[Jeff1192]

So it has been less than a month since I added fish to my tank. Among those was a large 18 colony of saulosi of varying ages and sizes. They are incredibly entertaining to watch. At first there was one dominant very colourful male. Since adding them another male has fully coloured up and a third one is starting to darken up as well. These 3 spend quite a bit of time 'testing' each other and defending the caves they have each claimed. I have noticed for the last few days that a female was going into one of those caves quite regularly. Today she seems to be holding. Her mouth seems swollen and she constantly moving her mouth like she's got a mouthful of something. Haha. A few times I have caught glimpses of white things (I assume eggs) in her mouth. She's spending most of her time in a cave and not swimming a lot. She does come out at feeding time and seems to be eating small amounts of food. I tried getting a photo but no luck so far.

[Mike L]

you will know for sure by weeks end. The lower mouth will distend like someone with a pronounced double chin. Congrats Jeff.

[Jeff1192]

Haha yup the double chin has already started!

[sas]

Awesome congrats! I always thought it looked like the fish had a bad case of the mumps, whenever
they were holding.
Are you going to leave things alone or isolate her and eventually strip her?

[Jeff1192]

Pretty sure I'm just going to leave her and see what happens. For starters catching her would be a nightmare in that tank I would think and I don't really want to get another tank up and running right now. Down the road I'd like to try it though.

[k1ng]

Do you have any pictures?

[Jeff1192]

I tried getting one the other day with my phone but she was hanging out in the shadows of the rocks so . I couldn't get a good one. I'll try again later