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I have a cichlid tank and recently the fish store guy sold some paradise fish to me and said that they would be okay to put with them.. well one of the pair of paradise that I bought is an albino and the other is blue.. the albino one started getting a pretty big stomach so I thought that they might breed.. I transferred them to a 10 gallon, plants, no filter, etc. and he began building a bubblenest... I see them swimming together every once and awhile and like jittering past each other like they were spawning, how can you tell if she released eggs? his nest is about 12inches long and 3 inches wide, I haven't seen any fry and I don't know if its because they eat them or because she hasn't released any eggs yet. will her stomach shrink after releasing? I am half tempted to remove part of the nest and see if anything happens..... any suggestions?

That's a big nest! The eggs are really tiny and almost look like some of the tiny bubbles that he's made. If she was enlarged from eggs, then yes, she will get smaller after laying eggs. You can certainly take part of the nest out and see if anything hatches. Some males will protect the eggs and newborns while others eat them. Most females eat the eggs and fry. You could also remove the parents and leave the nest with any possible eggs or fry in that tank.

Did you see the huge paradise fish thread (topic) in this section? I pinned it at the top. In that thread, many people talk about their paradise fish breeding and raising fry. They have more experience than I do. The thread is old but the information sitll holds.

My paradise fish page is at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/parad.htm

Good luck!