Publication2 med aquascape Publication1cs complete | Page 45

The Female will start to remove the wrigglers into nursery pits
circle each other. The colour of the fish should start
to change a little with intense blue and a darker bar-
ring region on the body. A suitable spawning site will
be excavated and eggs will be deposited on either a
cleaned up rock or cave structures like a flower pot.
H. deppii can produce large amounts of eggs of up to
several hundred. Any unfertilized will be quickly
picked out and eaten, as not to cause any bacterial
infections to the surrounding fertilized eggs. At
around 3 days the eggs will start hatching, so the
parents will quickly pick out the wrigglers and move
them to a nursery pit away from the spawning site.
On day 5 the wrigglers became free swimming. At
this stage the colour of the parents really intensifies
and they become different looking fish. The head
and front half becomes a very light mint coloured
blue, with the other half very dark blue with black
barring. Also they develop a black throat region with
darker lips. Eyes become a bright orange colour.
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