Blue Spot Jawfish - 3rd time the charm?

[ThRoewer]

So far they haven't killed each other and despite the usual burrow swapping they kind of get along now.
The brighter colored one of the three is definitely a female and not much involved in the squabbling of the other two.
But with the darker colored two I'm still not sure if they are male or female. The fact that they haven't killed each other yet kind of speaks against both of them being males...
I guess only time will tell.

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[ThRoewer]

So, the one I initially thought to be the female is definitely a male. He shows by now the distinct mating coloration.
The one I originally thought to be the male is a female, her fat belly is pretty conclusive.
Only about the smaller one I added later I'm not sure yet. He shows a coloration that is very close to the male mating coloration and is also acting like a male. The only confusing thing is that he by now gets along fairly well with the large male.

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[ThRoewer]

Time for an update on my 3 little Mexicans:
All 3 are still doing fine despite me not doing much on their tank aside from tossing in food and doing water changes when it gets too yellow... can't remember when it was the last time and it kinda starts looking like pee again so I guess it's probably due...
Their tank has only a powerhead pump and a by now defunct airstone skimmer:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mM9pRXlOoDQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So much for them needing pristine water quality...

BTW, I got a new 75-gallon tank for them, but that's right now used for water mixing.

 

[ThRoewer]

As it turns out I have 2 males and one female in my trio.
One male is right in the front and he is flashing a few times throughout the video.
The second male is in the back in this perspective and he can be seen flashing at about 3:04

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[ThRoewer]

I have to correct myself: the one in the front is a female after all.
So just one male (the smaller guy in the back) and two females (the two in the front).
The interesting part is that she shows a very similar color pattern as a flashing male with pale to nearly white front body color and a dark tail area. The colors are less defined as in a flashing male but strikingly similar.
It seems the females use a similar color pattern as the males to signal their readiness to spawn. Interestingly, I not found anything about this in the literature.

 

[ThRoewer]

He is now doing his dance for almost a week and the females still pretty much ignore him. But the female in the front is pretty gravid and sooner or later she will have to mate with him...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K70Iaf3YlLo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[mike61289]

That's really cool! I never knew that they flash like that. The colors totally change on them!

 

[ThRoewer]

Yesterday the female in the front corner looked like an overstuffed sausage. When I checked on them today she looked more normal again. The male also stopped flashing and doesn't leave his burrow, not even to eat.
So it looks like they spawned...
Now I need to figure out how to harvest up to 3,500 larvae, up to 7,000 if he spawned with both females...

 

[ThRoewer]

Video from Friday night before the spawn:

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Both females are extremely agitated.

 

[LargeAngels]

That is really exciting. Congratulations. Hope you can raise them. That would be a site to see a tank full of baby blue spot

 

[ThRoewer]

That is really exciting. Congratulations. Hope you can raise them. That would be a site to see a tank full of baby blue spot

I definitely plan on trying. A few hundred of them would be nice.

The male hasn't been out all day so far, not even opened up his burrow. This fits their breeding behavior.
At the same time the other female has gone on a construction spree and started rebuilding her burrow.

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[ThRoewer]

The females a day after the spawn. The male is watching the eggs in his burrow and didn't open it up all day. At the same time, both females decided to rebuild their burrows...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i6U4xscAa2s" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[jgannon]

Any updates on these guys?

 

[ThRoewer]

Any updates on these guys?

No, I currently don't have much time for them but they are continuing to do their thing.
I plan to move them to a larger tank soon where I can give them a deeper gravel layer and install a sump with skimmer, algae refugium, and most importantly a larvae collector.

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