Etroplus maculatus, the "Orange Chromide" revisited

[notho2000]

I first kept this species 50+ years ago and have very fond memories of the feisty little cichlid with the sooty colored breast. Well, all this time later, I have them again - a colony of ten wild caughts. I keep them in brackish water and I have had several spawns over the last few months. They are closely related to the Paretroplus of Madagascar, both in appearance and behavior. The eggs hang like little grapes and are opaque, olive colored. They prefer to spawn in the shelter of a cave and will defend their eggs and fry vigorously. This is the first opportunity I've had to video a spawn since this time, they spawned on the outside surface of a pot that was at the front of the tank. This is one cool little fish!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Jjxgfavpo