I have been collecting armulatus and of the three that are currently together, two appear to be exhibiting behaviors discussed in the few other recorded cases of armulatus spawning or almost spawning. The narrower one, which I had suspected to be male, is biting the fins of the whiter, fatter one which now certainly seems female (wishful fantasy is playing a big part, I'm sure). She has taken to an upside-down clay pot that has a door cut into it. He chases her back into it now and then. I really want this to happen.

Should I do the usual blackwater summer simulation? I'm not going to take it below 6.3, as it is too easy to lose control of water conditions below there. I'm thinking maple leaves and driftwood. I know lots of live food is in order. That's easy with my snail farm, pill bugs and earthworms. Any big don'ts? Should I try to move them out of the oscar's tank?

I might get a heater for the 75 gallon tank so I can play with water chemistry more freely. I am also preparing a maple leaf and oak tincture solution as I type this.

The ideas on place of spawning vary by report. Some suggest leaf spawning, some hint at a bubble-nest cuckoo spawn with hoplosternum, and another report tells of a pair found in a burrow under the edge of a river bank (aka cave spawn). The surface leaves are easy, as is the cave. But the price of hoplosternum cats is a little high and might be pointless.

If you have any advice on what will or won't work, what's been tried and failed or worked, please let me know. I am now up to four armulatus and my newest looks like a female if the guesses I've read are correct about dimorphism.