"LM" wrote in :

faded stripes is a sign of spawning? hmm.. one of the SAEs had a faded
stripe the other night.. i thought he/she was stressed from being
harassed.

Faded stripe is also a sign of stress in this species. And they even can do
the "dance" when discussing about who is the boss, when the light come on
in the morning, when they have just been eating or when they just feel like
dancing. I've been told that the actual breeding dance is more intensive
than the normal dances.

the tank temperature is about 76F... it does have two Aquaclear 200
powerheads (running the UGF) and one HOT Magnum for the 37G (tank has a
20G tank foot print, just several inches taller)..

Very small tank for this species. SAEs are fast swimmers and like to have
ROOOOM to dart from one end of the tank to the other, and so a long tank
is a must. They will hardly breed here. Perhaps they are fat because they
don't get enough exercise?

even if they spawn, unless I can find the brood, it'll become food for
the others :-(

That's what normally happens if SAEs lay eggs in a community tank.

Liisa