We have a breeding tank. We are hoping the fish in it are 1 male and 4 females. We trying to identify the sex of the fish but they are small so we are really just guessing. We have a heater in the tank which needs to be set for 80-85 degrees. We have a terra cotta pot and places to hide in the tank. The male works super hard at getting the females to lay her eggs in the pot. He tries to move the female with his tail to push them in the direction of the pot. He also stays in the pot and waits.
When the eggs are finally laid, he fertilizers them. She immediately puts the eggs back in her mouth. She keeps them there and rolls them around in her mouth. That is what we look for to know she has eggs. We think it takes a few weeks for them to be ready to hatch.
We try to move the female into a different tank before they can swim out of her mouth. We keep the mother with them for a bit to keep them safe, but she doesn’t eat when she has them in her mouth so it’s better if she can be by herself to rest and eat as soon as we can.
We are still trying to learn how to do this at this point. We can't quite get it down pat, but we know we are not growing our fish as quickly as we would like to be. We know we need to get good at breeding our own fish, so we can supply our own fish.