Jennifer, I've seen some of my female Simp. * taking a bite at the peat moss. Occasionally when you feed them live tubifex or live bloodworms, the worms will get stuck with some bits of peat moss, especially tubifex worms. Sometimes the fish take a bite at the worms and at the same time happen to ingest/swallow the bits of peat moss. It could be fatal if the fish cannot dislodge the peat moss from its mouth. I believe this is the reason your fish's mouth was full of peat moss. It could have choked on the bits of peat moss.
* Observed my female fulminantis taking a bite at the tubifex worm stuck with some bits of peat moss.
On the subject on how to see whether the female is ready for spawning, I have some personal observations which I would like to share with everyone. I realised that when the females are ready to breed, they will become more active and a tiny thing will protrude out of the belly, close to their small pelvic fins. This tiny thing I believe, is the ovipositor or the egg-depositor of the female. When I see this thing protruding and the belly of the female is pretty large, I can roughly judge as to whether they're ready for breeding.
(In cichlids, especially angelfishes, the female will have an extended ovipositor prior to breeding. IMO, I think female killies would show the same thing prior to spawning.)
Hope it helps. :wink:
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