Today -- shortly after 1:00 PM -- I woke up from a nap. I hadn't fed the
fish in the morning, as I normally do. However, upon doing so, I began to suspect that Mama Mbuna had already spawned, because she was nowhere in
sight, and she never misses a meal, particularly right before she is ready
to spawn. As I've noted a few times now, she will gorge herself with food in the days leading up to her spawning day, so that she has enough fuel in her body to make it through the next three weeks during her fast.

Well, sure enough, a short time later, I caught sight of her, and she was indeed rotating eggs in her throat. Going by her previous spawning days, I suspect that the spawn occurred right around noon, and Usurper -- who some
time ago took over Bully Boy's position as "King of the Tank" -- was undoubtedly her mate again under the center rock in the tank.

I had wanted to conduct my weekly water change yesterday, hoping to get in
one more water change before she spawned, but I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I postponed the task until this evening when I did a 23-gallon water change, which is probably close to a 70% water change.

As I write this, the tank is settling down again, and everyone is back to
their usual behavior. Usurper has also toned down his aggression towards the other males a notch, now that spawning time is over.



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