GSM pairing success

[David M]

Just some trivia for you, sort of interesting I think. Last week I reported losing my large female gsm in the Great Clown War of '06 ( fire clown got into gsm tank) Anyway Danny, the fellow who helps me out, said he had a large female at home in his 135 reef, been there all alone for 2+ years. He took my male and was all set to slowly introduce them, keeping the male in isolation in a spec container for a few days while they acknowledged each other. HA ! Within seconds the big female was at the container rolling sideways and woo-hooing the male. He actually jumped out of the container to get to her, they have been inseperable ever since. I just find this amazing, I would have thought they would be very difficult to pair up. It will be even more amazing if they don't take very long to spawn.

I have to wonder if the fact that this is an actively breeding and experienced male has something to do with this. Maybe there are electro/ chemical signals that let the female know this was the man she has been waiting for?

 

[Kathy55g]

Surely there is more to this social system than we can imagine!

 

[MimicTang]

My GSMs paired on day one too.

 

[Peter Schmiedel]

The big problem is tp pair juvi fish where the sex is maybe not fully "defined" yet. As you male had not had time to change to a female the roles where clear and therefore a quick pairing is for me not a surprise

 

[fargo_182]

When i got my two clown's 2 weeks ago I thought it was odd that from the reading I did mine were pairing by doing rolling over (submitting to the other) and doing the seizure dance by the first hour.
I thought maybe this is common and there's more to it, a couple months from now they would do wackier dances.
But from your post i looks like they are a happy couple after all!!
Mine cuddle in the flower pot, the larger one waits for the smaller one to eat first, they swim together, sleep together, surf the power head. Funny lil' fella's.
It's nice to hear a marron pairing went so well I heard they are pretty tough.
I think acclimating my two falses in separate bags side by side for a couple hours attributed to them being very curious of each other, as they stayed beside each other the whole time during it, and when added together in the tank went nuts toward each other.

I hope he gets a gorgeous batch of babies soon

goodluck

 

[David M]

fargo- keep an eye on that "surfing the powerhead", if it becomes a regular behavior it could be sign of parasitic infestation in the gills. Thay do that to get as much water flowing through the gill as possible. I'f it's just an occasional "playful" thing that's fine but if they hang out there a lot it's cause for concern. Just a heads up, hope they are fine.

 

[fargo_182]

Thanks David I'll keep an eye out.

They only do it when I work on the other side of the and they think it's "safe" to go there.
They are little wusses and stay near that flower pot all day and night long, unless after feeding when I turn the PH's back on and food shoots everywhere they go surfing for it.

The one found my huge conch shell base rock and hosted that for a 2 hours until she got lonely and went back to the pot.

I will definitely watch more carefully to see if they start doing it too much (more then once a week)

If I have to QT them, is it safe to say when I put them back in the tank they shouldn't get the parasite again? or could it be harboured in the rock?

 

[David M]

Once a week? No worries, I mean if they hang there almost permanently

To answer your question the basic assumption is that most parasites have a life cycle that involves at least one stage being dependant on a host animal, hence the name parasite

If you remove every possible host and wait long enough for the bug to complete it's life cycle, in theory the tank will be free of them. In the case of the very common crypto I leave a tank fishless for 8 weeks and no more problem. 4 weeks is probably enough but once it's empty what's the rush?