I have a pair of jewel cichlids that just spawned. That by itself is not unusual or even noteworthy except that they are just babies themselves. The larger of the 2 is less than 2 inches. But they chose a good defensible spot to spawn and seem to be very serious about defending their spawn. They are chasing off fish magnitudes larger than themselves, taking turns fanning the eggs and scouting the area for a safe next home for the babies. Something else noteworthy , to me at least is that they spawned on a vertical surface. They spawned on a vertical piece of wood. I don't know yet if the eggs are fertile but we will see. I secured the area for them with a piece of slate to keep the plecos out of there and now it is up to them. I will include some pics later.
Update:
Here are some pics. I tried to show the size of the parents. A large severum was trying forcefully to get to the eggs so the parents did the only thing they could do to protect the babies. They ate them! The eggs are gone now but I think they will be a good pair. I will give them private quarters in the future.
IMG_20150107_152550944.jpgIMG_20150107_152436545.jpgIMG_20150107_154101527.jpgIMG_20150107_152428819.jpgIMG_20150107_161302321.jpgIMG_20150107_152504799.jpg
Update:
Here are some pics. I tried to show the size of the parents. A large severum was trying forcefully to get to the eggs so the parents did the only thing they could do to protect the babies. They ate them! The eggs are gone now but I think they will be a good pair. I will give them private quarters in the future.
IMG_20150107_152550944.jpgIMG_20150107_152436545.jpgIMG_20150107_154101527.jpgIMG_20150107_152428819.jpgIMG_20150107_161302321.jpgIMG_20150107_152504799.jpg
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