vessxpress1
Premium Member
And it couldn't have been easier! I'm really shocked by how well it went. My initial maroon, I had bought about 6 months ago as a very small juvenile. It's since become a good sized female now. It hosts a GBTA that just split a week ago. I've been thinking about trying to pair one up with it for a while now so I finally decided to do it today.
I went to the LFS this afternoon and picked out a very small (maybe 1") juvenile with great color, and bought an acrylic box to hang on the tank to keep him in, in case of problems. Brought it home, drilled holes in the box and put a PH blowing on it to get some flow through it for good oxygen. My female came up a few times and looked at it in the bag and swiped at it a few times but I would say only got moderately agressive. The juve didn't do much but look at her. So I put him in his box and put a little food in it about 10 min. after he was in there and it ate like a little pig. The female seemed to get angry that it was eating before she was so I fed the tank at that point.
Then I left for a few hours. Came home, and the juve is swimming against the acrylic and i can tell he wants out bad. The resident female was mainly ignoring him, just staying in the BTA. Then I watched her swim up and I couldn't believe what she did. She ignored the male now and actually bit at a hole on the bottom of the acrylic box. Like she wanted him out of there. After seeing just the mild agression at first and none now, I said what the heck, and I released him.
Well, he gradually, cautiously, swam down to the BTAs and the female allowed him to go near it!!! She lightly nipped at his fins and pushed him around with her nose and he started shaking and submitting, but he can already go in the BTA. And the female has been in the tank by herself for a while now.
From what I"ve read, this isn't the norm, but I'm really thankful it went this well. I released it into the tank, roughly 5 hours after being introduced and no problems whatsoever.
I'm just wondering now if it might have something to do with the female still being somewhat young? Because it was as tiny as he is right now just 6 months ago. So while she's still grown up and larger, she's still very young. I wonder if this made the pairing easier? I'll post a few pics later.
I went to the LFS this afternoon and picked out a very small (maybe 1") juvenile with great color, and bought an acrylic box to hang on the tank to keep him in, in case of problems. Brought it home, drilled holes in the box and put a PH blowing on it to get some flow through it for good oxygen. My female came up a few times and looked at it in the bag and swiped at it a few times but I would say only got moderately agressive. The juve didn't do much but look at her. So I put him in his box and put a little food in it about 10 min. after he was in there and it ate like a little pig. The female seemed to get angry that it was eating before she was so I fed the tank at that point.
Then I left for a few hours. Came home, and the juve is swimming against the acrylic and i can tell he wants out bad. The resident female was mainly ignoring him, just staying in the BTA. Then I watched her swim up and I couldn't believe what she did. She ignored the male now and actually bit at a hole on the bottom of the acrylic box. Like she wanted him out of there. After seeing just the mild agression at first and none now, I said what the heck, and I released him.
Well, he gradually, cautiously, swam down to the BTAs and the female allowed him to go near it!!! She lightly nipped at his fins and pushed him around with her nose and he started shaking and submitting, but he can already go in the BTA. And the female has been in the tank by herself for a while now.
From what I"ve read, this isn't the norm, but I'm really thankful it went this well. I released it into the tank, roughly 5 hours after being introduced and no problems whatsoever.
I'm just wondering now if it might have something to do with the female still being somewhat young? Because it was as tiny as he is right now just 6 months ago. So while she's still grown up and larger, she's still very young. I wonder if this made the pairing easier? I'll post a few pics later.
Looking forward to pics.
