are my ocellaris clowns getting ready to spawn?

[lakwriter]

Hi all, I noticed this morning that my female O. clown was a bit pudgy in the tummy. Add to that she has been hosting a crevice in one of the rocks at night, where she used to host a powerhead nearby along with the male. After some observation, I noticed what appears to be a small black tube extending between the little fins on her belly (one of these fins seems to have shrunken a bit since yesterday, but I'm not sure its related). She and the male are swimming around and eating normally and appear to show no abnormalities.

I've had the pair for a little over a year and the female is approx. 2" long.

The female once had an internal parasite that showed a similar tummy bulge, but the absence of white, stringy feces leads me to believe that its not parasite (treated with UltraCure nearly a year ago).

Does it sound like they're getting ready to spawn?

 

[phender]

Its possible, but I don't think so. The ovipositor(the tube that the eggs come out of) of the female is a transluscent white, not black and it usually isn't visible until less than an hour before spawning begins. I have had hundreds of clown spawnings in my tanks and have never actually seen the ovipositor extended except during the actual spawning event.

In addition, unless one of is bad at estimating clown size, ocellaris females don't spawn until closer to 3".

Could just be a blockage. Sometimes a feeding or two of mysis or cyclop-eeze will clear it up.

 

[shiggs]

I agree that is usually what happends definatly not black.

 

[lakwriter]

So then, any thoughts on a black tube-like protrusion?

 

[garygb]

My ocellaris spawn often (in fact there is a batch of eggs right now), and they very diligently work at cleaning whatever surface they are going to spawn on. They become obsessed with biting and fanning the surface. If they aren't doing this together, then I would say they aren't about to spawn. As Phender suggested, perhaps there is some type of digestive blockage. Feeding mysis or some fresh squid (something besides processed) might be a good idea.