Black Ocellaris Pre-Spawning Behaviors

[WaffleWalffle22]

Background

I'm expecting my pair of Black Ocellaris to lay eggs this year. I picked them up from the LFS 16 or more months ago or more and they were already bonded. They were wild caught so I don't know exactly how old they are. I'm guessing they were from the same family group because they were both the same size which means that they were probably both juvenile males in the hierarchy. Anyways, they remained the same size for about a year and then I moved them from my 14g to a brand new 34g Red Sea Max. They slowly changed size over the last year and now one (the female) is 3" and the other (the male) is about 1.75". There's no doubt that they're a pair now since they sleep in the same anemone at night. :love2:

My Questions

OK so now on to my questions! For the past few months the male has been biting (cleaning I guess?) the same place on the shaded underside of a rock. He hits it with his tail, too. He cleans off the sand around it and does this a few times a day. The female doesn't seem to be too interested, but she occasionally helps. The place on the under side of the rock is right next to a 10"+ GBTA and right below a 10"+ RBTA. :worried2: I think this is where they'll lay eggs if they do and sometimes after the male cleans it he'll do his special vibration dance. I think the male is very overly enthusiastic and the female doesn't really care. The female will sometimes "kiss"/bite the male's stomach. Not like as a threatening bite or angry/dominant bite, but more of a gentle "kiss" sort of thing. I'm guessing that these are pre-spawning behaviors but they've been going on for a few months. Are these actual pre-spawning behaviors? Are there any other behaviors I should be looking for? What are some other pre-spawning signs? I notice that the female is continuing to get larger and the male is continuing to get smaller.

 

[Eric Noa]

When the male ( Smaller one ) does that vibration or shaking dance it means their a pair cause mine does that to the female ( Bigger One ) all the time

 

[Slickcg33]

Background

I'm expecting my pair of Black Ocellaris to lay eggs this year. I picked them up from the LFS 16 or more months ago or more and they were already bonded. They were wild caught so I don't know exactly how old they are. I'm guessing they were from the same family group because they were both the same size which means that they were probably both juvenile males in the hierarchy. Anyways, they remained the same size for about a year and then I moved them from my 14g to a brand new 34g Red Sea Max. They slowly changed size over the last year and now one (the female) is 3" and the other (the male) is about 1.75". There's no doubt that they're a pair now since they sleep in the same anemone at night. :love2:

My Questions

OK so now on to my questions! For the past few months the male has been biting (cleaning I guess?) the same place on the shaded underside of a rock. He hits it with his tail, too. He cleans off the sand around it and does this a few times a day. The female doesn't seem to be too interested, but she occasionally helps. The place on the under side of the rock is right next to a 10"+ GBTA and right below a 10"+ RBTA. :worried2: I think this is where they'll lay eggs if they do and sometimes after the male cleans it he'll do his special vibration dance. I think the male is very overly enthusiastic and the female doesn't really care. The female will sometimes "kiss"/bite the male's stomach. Not like as a threatening bite or angry/dominant bite, but more of a gentle "kiss" sort of thing. I'm guessing that these are pre-spawning behaviors but they've been going on for a few months. Are these actual pre-spawning behaviors? Are there any other behaviors I should be looking for? What are some other pre-spawning signs? I notice that the female is continuing to get larger and the male is continuing to get smaller.

My clarkii pair have been doing the exact same spawning/cleaning thing for about 4 months now...

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

When the male ( Smaller one ) does that vibration or shaking dance it means their a pair cause mine does that to the female ( Bigger One ) all the time

Clowns actually do that to show submissiveness to the other. Once they're a pair it happens less often, but it is still show by them male when the female nips to show dominance.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

bump

 

[ocellaris123]

My black ocellaris pair spawned for the first time last week. I have had them for a year. During the first 5-6 months of having them the male would vigorously clean a rock or flat tile in the aquarium by their bubble anemone. He even showed a small bit of breeding tube at this time. I thought they were about to breed at that time but they never did. The female once in a while would join in on the cleaning but for the most part it was the male who did it. Last week I noticed the female and male aggressively cleaning a spawning site right next to their rose anemone host. They even harassed the anemone in order to get it to close up in order to gain better access to the breeding site. The females egg tube dropped significantly as did the males breeding tube(she always showed a little bit in the past), and one hour later they spawned. FWIW I knew they were going to spawn when seeing the female aggressively join the male in cleaning the site and her breeding tube drop almost fully extended.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

I've had my clowns for 16 months and they were in the LFS for 6+ months so they've had 2 years to bond. They stayed the same size as each other until about 6 months ago or less when the female started getting bigger. Then the male shrank to about 1.5" and stopped gowning/shrinking. The female is at least twice the size of the male. What does this "breeding tube" look like and how can I tell if it is down?

 

[ocellaris123]

It is behind the anus of the clownfish. The males is sharp and pointed, while the females is alot larger and fatter. Check out a video of spawning clownfish on youtube and im sure you will notice it.