Hatching

Overnight, with the lights out, the male Macropodus appears to have done little nest maintenance, such that when I put on the lights this morning there were eggs and babies all over. Since then he has been diligently collecting babies and eggs, while chasing everyone else away from the area of the nest. In this he has had the assistance of the female. Between the two of them they have claimed about half the surface area of the tank and maybe a third of the total water volume (they aren't bothered by fish more than about a foot under the nest).

While the male seems to have a good grasp on his role, the female seems a bit less sure what to do. Unlike him, she is still eating - may be eating eggs and fry as well (I have seen her gather up errant fry, but I haven't seen her return anything to the nest). In addition, the male chases her when she gets too close to the nest. On the other hand, she is doing a good job chasing everyone else away from the nest. She seems to have an especial dislike for the angels - she goes to the far end of the tank to find angels to chase.

I noticed that the fry tend to attach to surfaces - not just bubbles, but also the glass or plant stems. I suppose there's survival value in that - they are less visible if they attack to vegetation.