Is she gravid?

[vance.110]

Need a little help here. I think my female is gravid. What do you all think? Her belly is huge and the two of them sure seem to be nesting under a chalice I have in my tank. Another question I have is, these were sold to me as wild percs from a very reputable dealer, but I think the female is an ocellerous. If they do end up laying eggs will they be viable? Joyce Wilkerson's book is already in the mail just in case. Thanks for any help.

Bill

 

[melissa77]

my female gets huge like this about a week before she lays eggs, and yes, she looks more like a occelaris than a percula,

 

[billsreef]

Yup, she looks gravid. As for occelaris vs. percula, color is not useful in determining which is which as it's not unusual for percula's to have the same coloration as occelaris. You need to count dorsal spines. Go to fishbase.org and you can find the info for the spine counts of each species.