Are my blue hepatus tangs breeding?

[reefamundo]

I have two blue hepatus tangs that we have had for about two years. They were only about the size of my thumbnail when we got them. Now, they are about 4" or so. The other day I noticed something hanging out of the bottom of one of the tangs. It looked long and stringy and the tangs were acting odd. I thought it had gotten in a fight and another fish shredded the bottom of it.
When I looked closer, I couldn't figure out what it was.

In the evening, we noticed that the tangs were dancing in synchronous motion with each other. They were zipping about and twirling together all over the tank. Then, they would zip off and hide in the rocks for a minute or so. Then, they would start dancing again. We saw them do this a few times.

Earlier in the day, we saw one of them grab hold of a snail from the glass and crunch on it, then throw it doown. I have never seen that behavior, and it did it twice in the afternoon.

The next day, they were back again to normal behavior and nothing was hanging from the tang. No frys anywhere ... yet.

Has anyone had this happen before?

 

[jimmy frag]

yes with dragonets but tangs ?

 

[billsreef]

The other day I noticed something hanging out of the bottom of one of the tangs. It looked long and stringy

Likely just a bit constipated at that moment. The dancing bit could be spawning behavior if they happen to be of the opposite sex, otherwise it is just displaying to establish dominance. Spawning runs for these guys requires a rather long. Only place I've ever seen it happen in a tank is the local public aquariums reef tank that is 20,000 gallons.

 

[Luis A M]

Bill is right.Besides,at 4" they are still very young for spawning. They´re dusk-time pelagic spawners.