GSMaroons spawning???!!

[cbreps]

6 weeks ago i bought two GSM's, i was told to expect the worse and WWIII when they went in the tank together. i set them up in two separate 10 gal QT tanks about 2 feet apart. the larger one spent most of her time against the glass facing the little male. he appeared a bit nervous even with the separation. after 2 weeks i decided to put a divider in the males tank and put the female in with him. they stayed away from each other the first couple hours (which is not what i expected, thought she would be hitting the divider, it was almost like they were ignoring one another,lol). i returned a few hours later and they were on the same side! apparently love was too strong and the male found a gap at the bottom of the divider. he was totally submissive and they were hitched!:love2: now a few weeks later i am setting up their 40gallon (plumbed into the rest of the system, now 200 gallons spread over 4 tanks and a 50g sump) and i notice they are cleaning out a spot on the bottom of the 10 gallon QT tank (they carry rubble away and get really irritated at the hermits when they get close) and the female is looking thicker??!!...

SOOO....should i move them into the 40? i only have sand in it at this point, should i wait? i wasnt planning on this all happening so fast. i put about 1/2 gallon of main system water into the QT tanks every 1-3days lately to make sure they are used to the main system.

any help from experienced clown breeders would be greatly appreciated!

 

[NirvanaFan]

It can take a long time for them to start breeding after they start cleaning. Sometime it's months, or sometimes it's days. There really isn't a set time.

 

[Enyo]

Coming from someone with a maroon pair for years, they aren't preparing to spawn.

Picking up rocks and moving them across the tank, doing "burnouts" in the sand, aggression towards other inhabitants that get too close - these are NORMAL behaviors of maroon clowns in general.

Maroon pairing hits polar extremes. It either goes TERRIBLY WRONG, or REMARKABLY SMOOTH. In cases that go smooth, the male is generally much smaller than the female (opposed to similarly sized).

The only way to tell for sure is to look for the Ovipositor on the female.

 

[cbreps]

thanks!...i have an ocellaris pair that has been cleaning and tending to a rock for about 3mos. so that makes sense. when i saw how thick she looked i thought maybe she was developing eggs but as it turned out apparently the wife and i were not communicating about the feeding! and this female is a pig! she will practically eat out of my fingers, she swims up to the top corner to get her food when i walk in the room. she wont touch dried pellet food (1mm spectrum) which is odd, every other fish i own gobbles it up. its the only thing she wont try to steal from the little male. we feed her a mix of chopped frozen food and the wife gave her some of the bigger bits i had prepared for the huma trigger and jaw fish. she looks as she did when i bought her now (not plump)....ok so now i know i can get on with moving them over to their 40g. i was just afraid i would interrupt their spawning and forever throw off the balance of the universe, lol

 

[zeeter]

Even if they are setting up a spot you don't want to keep them in the QT tank forever. If they are cleaning up an area and getting larger that is still part of the spawn; just the very early stages. I'd put them in the 40 sooner rather than later because they'd probably start all over again once moved.

I can't get my male GSM to even come out from behind the rocks. His mate keeps trying to get him to come out but he just stays there most of the time.

 

[cbreps]

i couldnt be happier with their bonding at this point, they are always close to one another and at nite they sleep touching one another squeezed between the magnetic glass cleaner and the filters suction tube. yes definately i will be moving them over to the 40g very soon, maybe tomorrow.