I've suspected/known all along that the two mudminnows I rescued from a bait bucket were male and female.
The female seemed to have been the worse for wear after the prolonged stay in the unfiltered five gallon pail full of shiners.
She was skinny, had erroded fins bordering on fungal and stayed hidden long after the male got tame and emerged from the plants.
After several weeks of fresh chopped nightcrawlers, she now looks to be swelling with eggs, her fins are healing [no medicine or other care on my part] and she is out at the front of the tank begging for food.
Lately, the male has been displaying for her but after a moment or two, turns on her and nips her and chases her. It looks pretty rough and she stays hidden for a long time afterward.
My question is; does this sound like the natural development of mudminnow love? Or is it territorial aggression?
I have them in a good tank for them to breed in if they iron out their differences. I think it would be cool to observe.
Anyone have first hand experience breeding them?
Are they normally quarrelsome and territorial?

Hi,
I had seen mudminnows here breeding while there is still a little ice in the ponds so i would guess they need really cold conditions in order to be "in the mood"

Mine are quarrelsome only at feeding time and i'm not sure what sex they are to be honest, they are not quite a year old yet.
D

Thanks Benjamin.
I'm kinda surprised your response was all I got [not counting deleted ones].
I know lots of people here have kept mudminnows. I thought somebody would have something to say.

I have not spawned them in an aquarium but I do know that they spawn very early. I find the young in my breeding pond in mid April along with the Grass Pickerel. I'm not sure what the temperature is but I know it is not real warm because it is only about a month to 6 weeks after the ice is out which means they probably actually spawn within a week or 2 after the ice melts.

Thanks Brian. I did glean the low temp fact from searching the net. These fish were trapped through the ice and stored outdoors in a semi-frozen bait bucket for over a week before I got them. The tank they're in now has reached 55 F at most. I'm hoping that isn't too much.
The male is definately fully charged up and displays to the female any chance he gets. The female is quite full looking but does not seem to respond to the male. When she ignores him, he snaps and chases her away. I'm hoping she comes around.
I wonder if lowering the temp would work? Kinda going backwards I guess.
I'll post any progress.

It sounds like they are getting ready but maybe the female needs more time for the eggs to develope before she will be willing to take part in the males sugestions.

Yes, like the pike with Musky waiting for the warmest waters, muds spawn very early when you think of fish spawning. Since sunfish, darters, and minnows all wait for nicer weather.

I have never spawned muds in a tank either, but have had them spawn in a pail that contained them as part of fish I caught as feeders. I never noticed any brutal beatings by males on females. I have read many accounts that two males will spawn with one female, but myself have never seen the act so have no first hand evidence of what happens.

It seems that like with pike, there is a lot of tussleing going on when spawning is happening, and some rough houseing could result in minor fin damage or loss of scales, but nothing that should worry anyone about loosing their captives.

Well they did spawn and it was rough!
I came home yesterday to find the female looking pretty beat up but swimming out in the open with the male noticably keeping his distance from her. This got my attention because for over a week she had stayed hidden and anytime she showed herself the male was all over her. I could see right away that she had spawned because she had been so full before, her current skinny condition stood out like a sore thumb. She further confirmed it by attacking a stick I was using to poke amongst the plants looking for eggs. I removed both adults, each to a seperate bucket, and tried to carefully search for eggs. I did not find any but the tank has a thick, deep mat of algae and numerous parrot feather type plants so maybe I missed them. After a mostly fruitless search online for any captive spawning info, the nugget I gleaned was that the female would care for the eggs. For that reason I decided to return her to the tank. She had been in the bucket for several hours and the tank was significantly disrupted by my search for the eggs. She immediately buried herself in the algae and hadn't shown herself by lights out so I don't know how things will turn out.
I did get some so so pics of courtship before they spawned so I'm hoping some fry will survive long enough for me to photograph them.

Hiya,
Congrats on your mudminnow spawning!
Well spring is around the corner here (sort of) and in a few weeks i will start to go and check out the local pond that has the mudminnows and see whether or not they have bred or are breeding. It seems to coincide with the earliest frog spawning here so i'll just confirm for my own curiosity the exact time these little guys breed.