I bought a breeding pair of albino long fins about a month ago which breed a week before i got them. Now i have fattened her up to the piont where she looks like she is going to explode, but from underneath it doesnt look like she is holding eggs. So what i was wondering is do i drop the water temp from 28 to 22 degrees and do a 40% cold water change now or do i wait until she is holding then do it?

Best time to try trigger them is just before or while it's raining. I find this when my bristlenose spawn the most. Other than that you can trigger by dropping the water level by a third, leave at 28. After 1 week then turn the temp down to 24-25 while topping the tank back up to full with slightly colder water. Do not use straight cold water as it can shock the fish and cause problems such as white spot disease. I don't do anything to trigger my albino longfins. They spawn every 3-5 weeks. Usually after it rains. You can tell when they are going to spawn as the females start to hang around the cave more often. Either sittin on it, next to it or even trying to get into it lol

Awsome thanks heaps for the fast info. Hopefully within a couple of weeks dad should be fanning his ass off

The thing to remember is not to over stress them. if you try to trigger them over and over again in a short time period you will stress them out. Plan your triggering around the weather but not too often

Well great news. Yesterday a storm came over so i did a 40% cold water change and dropped the temp and within a few hours they where busy flirting around in and around his cave. I got up thismorning and they are still at it. So when i know there is eggs in there, do i start raising the temp back up slowly or do i wait till the babies are out and about? And how long does this flirting last for?

Good luck

i dont even bother dropping the temp on the heater any more. i simply use the temp of the cool water to drop the temp. the heater will take care of heating it back up. generally takes about 5 hrs to get back up.