Today, beginning at just about noon, Mama Mbuna spawned for the fifth time.
I was a bit surprised, as I wasn't expecting it to happen for about another five days -- around the 40-day mark -- but it became very obvious that her
time had arrived, as Bully Boy was his usual aggressive self inflicting pain and torment on the other four male mbunas in the tank, so that he would be
the first in line.

Besides that, Mama Mbuna had been gorging herself with food -- a clear sign that her time was drawing near -- and the males seemed to lose their
appetite since about yesterday. I suspect that the big water change that I conducted on Monday may have precipitated spawning occurring earlier this
time. The mbunas always become more active -- and more aggressive with each other -- whenever I conduct water changes.

Anyway, the spawn cycle lasted for about two hours -- until 2:00 PM -- and occurred under Bully Boy's huge rock that is situated in the center of the tank.

While they were busy spawning, I decided to improve the special cave that I
had designed for Mama Mbuna the other day, just to make sure that she would
be at relative peace while she incubated her eggs during the next three
weeks.

Amazingly, even though I was moving rocks around on top of Bully Boy's huge rock -- and even accidentally dropped a few small rocks in front of the
opening to his pit -- they just kept spawning underneath the rock anyway.

Ironically, after all of the trouble that I went through to redo her cave,
Mama Mbuna checked it out, but has barely been using it during the past four hours. Maybe she will settle into it after the lights go out later tonight.

As I write this, the tank is starting to settle down again, with the males' aggression waning again.

All of the fry -- all fifteen of them -- just go about their business, and quickly get out of the way whenever two of the larger males are going after each other.

At the rate Mama Mbuna is spawning every 30-40 days, I am going to need a "Mbuna Motel" sized aquarium soon! :)


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