I have mentioned in random threads i have been trying to spawn bluegill indoors in my 100 gallon aquarium since january.
I thought i had 1 "male" and 3 "females" in the tank but a week ago i saw the largest "female" trying to make a second nest and seemed to be courting the "2nd largest female"... So i removed the "male" from the aquarium and sure enough the "largest female" moved into the big/main nest (there's only really room for 1 nest) and a week later i have bluegill eggs.
A couple of takeaways. Before i knew the "largest female" was in fact male, there was a lot of reason for me to think it was female. It generally had lighter colors. A significantly smaller and (to me) rounded ear tab. I witnessed it dancing with the "male" in the nest on multiple occasions but never resulted in any eggs.
I find it interesting that the female didnt spawn with any male, The dominant one has been available since january. She waited for the opportunity to spawn with this specific male?
from here on out the "largest female" will now be referred to as the male.
The eggs do not look like i thought they would. In fact, yesterday i thought i had some sort of mold infection in the tank because it was just a translucent jellylike haze. But today, i can see some actual gnat sized creatures hopping around, especially when the male fans the eggs and kind of stirs them up. There's also some shiny spherical objects which i am not sure what they are.
Anyways. I think there are thousands of blue gill in this picture. I will update as they grow and this progresses.
