The next few days could prove to be interesting as the male bluegill has begun the most aggressive nest building that I have seen. I should probably start a recap of what has happened since my last post.
The challenge of feeding has become a distant memory. The "worm pellets" I made were effective for transitioning the redear to pellet feed. All 3 now readily eat pellets from the surface. In fact, the smaller redear will hit pellets so aggressively that 2/3 of her body comes out of the water!
I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but I decided to put a divider in the tank to separate the bluegill from the redear. He was harassing them to the point of pectoral fins getting ragged so I decided to give them a break. I removed the divider a week or two ago and at the same time I removed the larger RES. I did this because the smaller one is visibly bloated with eggs and the larger one is not. I did not want to risk having a male RES around for the spawn.
So now I have a hopeful pair. The RES is still being harassed by the male BG to the point of hiding behind objects in the tank, so I am not sure if they consider themselves a pair or not.🤣.
I will try to get some pics of the nesting tomorrow. At some point I guess I will have to decide if manual intervention is needed(egg/sperm stripping). And if it comes to that, I will be flying blind as I have not found a definitive guide on that process!
