This took place while my larger female was laying her first clutch of eggs (and seemed a little freaked out about it). The other female, seen on top here, was hassling her. Are these immature eggs coming out of the top female? Was she competing or just stimulated to release eggs because the other one did? I didn't see them actually laid anywhere, and have no idea what happened to them.
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Okay, I've totally forgotten how to post regular-sized photos on here.
Hmmm....hard to say what you have going on there. If it is indeed a VERY combative female, I'd almost certainly look to remove the chief offender (non egg layer) and probably transfer her to another hobbyist needing a female.
Breeding is stressful enough. Combating and aggression on top of that will become very debilitating and unhealthy.
Yeah, I'm still watching for aggression, although now there's a cocohut so that may help matters.
I'm just wondering if the non-egg-layer is actually half-laying eggs there, or if I'm seeing something else. Is it possible she reabsorbed them if they weren't, you know, completely out?
My guess would be she laid them and the other female ate them.
BcsTx Wrote:My guess would be she laid them and the other female ate them.
No, I was watching during this entire encounter, and quite a while before and after -- the female never actually laid them, they were just there long enough for me to take some pictures, and then they were gone. I don't even know whether a female could reabsorb those; they also could have gotten rubbed off on a leaf, even though I didn't find anything. Not sure if it's clear in the picture but there was no jelly around them at all, so I don't think they were ready to be laid. I haven't seen pictures or read of anything like this so far.