I was pondering this last night as I had a rookie pair in the spawning tank. He was being very rough with her. Just when I caught sight of them wrapping briefly, the joy ended and he began his abusive ways. I waited several hours and by now, some scales were missing, and her flanks were raw. I wanted a spawn from her but not at the risk of losing her to injury. I pulled her out.

So thus comes to the question, when do you call a spawn quits? When it is all over no matter the condition of the female? Or is there a threshold which you look for to call it quits?

I call it quits when I start to worry about the female... as in, she is suffering serious bodily injury. This has only ever happened once and I pulled her immediately when I saw it happening, and she made a complete recovery :)

Really a extremely hard judgement call!!! I never terminate a spawn. I let things continue for 72 to 96 hours regardless of how bad a beating a fish is taking. If you condition your pairs correctly both should survive no matter what the bating. You will lose a few fish along the way but letting the spawn go on to the allowed time increases your productivity.

You have to crack a few eggs to make an omlett

Rob