Crazy female..breeding?

[colby]

In the past few days one of my female Ocellaris who share her tank with only the male has been behaving quite strangely. (Just to make it clear these are a proven breeding pair prior to my owning them and they have been in my tank for about a month.) Until recently I have never seen the female assert her dominance really, but she seems to be doing it lately. Also they are acting very weird in that they are swimming with sort of jerky motions and seem to b dbating something between themselves if that make any sense. Overall the female just seems more agressive or something. Does this sound like pre-spawning behavior or just crazy clowns? Like I said they just seem overall crazy.:strooper:

Colby

 

[Kathy55g]

They are just behaving like clownfish. Do you have Joyce Wilkerson's book? Didn't you say you had bred clownfish before?

 

[colby]

Yes I do have the book and yes I have bred clownfish before, however they have never acted like this. The males have aleways acted a bit crazy for me but this whole female thing is all new to me. Thanx.

Colby

 

[FuEl]

I have a non-spawning pair of black ocellaris that have been getting along fine for the past few months. Just that now I'm experiencing the same problems as you. The female being super aggressive, even to the extent of locking her jaws on the male's tail. The male seems more intimidated than ever. Probably leave them to squabble it out, maybe the female has PMS.

 

[nanoguru]

I have the same issue with my maroon pair!

Female seems like she's really grouchy...and she's been acting strange , like she's sitting or hiding between rocks very still...then sometimes she'll go kiss/nuge/bite the male that shakes around like having a seizure and female would go hide again...

weird, weird, weird...

 

[mwp]

FWIW my pair of Onyx Percs exhibited this behavior early on when pairing up...it also came back a few months ago as they started to mature and clean their nest site. The female did cause some damage to the male, but ultimately things worked out...granted I still haven't seen a spawn yet!

MP

 

[Kathy55g]

Normal mating behaviour.

 

[nanoguru]

I suppose, these mating behaviors don't necessarily mean we're going to see eggs soon?

 

[jnowell]

My Clarkiis spawned with 2 months of the weirdness starting. I agree with Kathy that it's not actually weird, it's normal. When mine got really aggressive, it was because the male was cleaning a rock for eggs, but the female had a different location picked out, she "gently corrected" him to the proper location. That was the last step in the process, once he started clearing the right spot, there were eggs within a week.

Jason

 

[colby]

Ok thanx for the experiences guys. The action has really died down this past week and now the pair is hanging out closer together than before and the female lets the male chill in the litlle house with her. I get the feeling though that they are not interested in breeding anymore. The only thing I did differently is reduce the amount of waterchanges I was making. Because the tank is only ten gallons and I have been saturation feeding I would change 20% of water every day and then 50% every 5 days. Some credible sources told me this was to much and may be stressing the fish out, so I reduced the water changes and now I see no breeding behavior. However yesterday when I came ome the female was looking pleasanlty plump and her ovipositor was sticking out. Then this morning no ovipositor and she is skinny again. However they are not currently cleaning a nest site so I dont think they layed eggs. Why else would she have the ovipositor out though? Thanx.

Colby

 

[Kathy55g]

After they lay the eggs they do not clean, they hover.
She either laid them and ate them, laid them and you haven't found them yet, or reabsorbed them. In 11 to 20 days, look for the ovipositer again.

 

[colby]

Thank you so much for your help kathy. If it makes a difference here is a small history of the pair as far as I know:

They are four years old...
Came from ORA broodstock room...

Now although the kind folks at ORA did confirm for me that they have in fact been proven breeders I am wondering if it is not possible that they have some sort of breeding "defect" for lack of a better word... I mean if they were perfectly productive why would ORA get rid of such a yong pair? I am aware they need to move new stock in and by doing so some have to be booted, still it makes me wonder...

Ok I will keep looking for eggs and what not, thanks for the help.

Colby

 

[colby]

One more thing...what would cause the femal to reabsorb them as opposed to laying them?

Thanx again

Colby

 

[Kathy55g]

If she's not ready, things aren't to her liking, wrong temperature, light cycle, water chemistry, food abundance, faze of the moon. Maybe she's ****ed at the male if he is not receptive enough. Recently shipped fish take some time to be ready. Didn't you say these are new fish to you? Did ORA sell you young breeders or retired breeders? Perhaps she is too old to do the job properly. Or too young... Or the male is not ready...It could be anything.

My fish took 3 years to start breeding and I bought larger fish.

 

[colby]

The fish are four years old and have been breeding for about two....

They are on a 13 hour light cycle
Have moon light
Saturation fed
82 degree farenheight water


I know she is not even close to being to old, ORA told me they have breeding pairs that are 25+ years of age...

Thanx,
Colby

 

[km133688]

if you saw her fat with her ovipositor sticking out, then my guess is she laid them. My clowns first put down eggs on the roof of a rock cave as that was where their anemoe was at the time. Watch the male. He will be tending the eggs as you know since you have done this before. He will show you were they are if you have any.

good luck, Kevin