Thanks man.
As you can see the male is ready for action. This is a good shot of what the male organ looks like from the side. It comes to an obvious point and is pointed forward. A female will look like a soda straw pointed backward.
The female is not ready...no visible sign other than a slight thickness in that area. What I think is going on is that they can't comes to terms with WHERE they want to breed. The male keeps selling the large pot..darting in and scraping the inside while the female watches.
He is also scraping along the sides and top of the pot...all while the female watches.
The female literally ignores this and swims over top of the slate...puffing up her operculum and scraping the bottom and cleaning the slate.
The male...dejected...will lay along side waiting for the female to return for a repeat performance.
Back and forth...each trying to lay the ground rules for the next breeding site.
Two shots of the male:
Two of my favorite shots thus far....the male making a quick turn. I actually caught this pose four or five times These are the best of the bunch.
