Rotpuct match-making and Cacatuiode housekeeping

["Alan Whitten" <caw18@bak.rr.com>]

I would like to publicly thank Rik Vandiver for the excellent Cacatuides and Rotputcs he arranged for me to get in late April.

Today, I think one of my Cacatuoide females is setting up housekeeping in preparation for spawning.  She
has staked claim to one of the half burried flower pots in the 25 gallon tank, and is starting to aquire some
yellow coloring.  After I fed them at lunch today, I noticed that when the male swam by the flowerpot, 
she would come out and do a shimmy right in front of him.  I think she is trying to get him to come
back to the flower pot with her.  I am guessing that I made the correct move when I moved them from
a 10gallon with a ph of 6 to a 25 gallon tank in which the ph generaly hangs around 7.5.  I am hoping
the other female in the tank starts to color up soon, but she is much smaller than the other female.

As for my Rotputcs, I recieved 6 from Rik, and I lost one of the smallest ones in May.  Yesterday evening, I picked
out what I though was my largest Female, and I moved her into a 10gallon tank with my largest male.  The female
had been showing good yellow color, and the male had been changing color to a nice blue/silver.  So I thought I 
would play match-maker and move the two fin in together.

Well, in hind site that turned out to be a mistake.  The female got a bit stressed by the move (these fish are almost
as hard to cactch as salt water Damsels!), and the male immediatly started chasing her around when I placed her in
the tank.  She lost all of her yellow, and was swimming with clamped fins. So in the interest of keeping my
 expensive livestock alive, I placed a tank divider in the tank last night, seperating the male from the female.

Well, today at feeding time, both of them were at the tank divder flaring their fins out at each other.  I thougth
this behavior was only seen between males?  The females yellow color is starting to return, and I am going to 
give her a week or two to get her strength back before I remove the tank divider.  Are Rotpuct males know for
beating up females?

Heres to hoping for spawnings!!!
--C. Alan

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