BonsaiNut
Premium Member
No worries - I didn't take your comments at all negatively.
Love lost between latz
- Thread starter landlord
- Start date
No worries - I didn't take your comments at all negatively.
When I paired my perculas I had the male in a quarantine tank, and when I felt he was ready to meet her, I pulled her out of my reef, and put her in a critter keeper in the quarantine tank with him. After a couple days I let her out at feeding time to see how they would react to each other, and when she swam out he swam to her side and they bonded. He was significantly smaller than she was, less than an inch vs three inch plus, so that may have been a contributing factor in the quick bonding, there was no doubt who was going to be dominant.
My friends have a pair of ocellaris that went through a similar change of personality. A tank divider with a hole just large enough for the male to fit through has done the trick. The male can visit with the female and escape when he needs to. Apparently the male learned quite quickly how to use his escape route. Maybe something like that could work for your latz pair.
Karen
Karen
landlord
New member
Well I got home yesterday and was very happy to see the male was not dead. He was however close to it. The female must have spent the day administering the "Amphiprion Smackdown". Poor fella was basically out of gas when I got to him. He has been pretty much scaled, fins are a wreck, and he was covered in slime.
On the bright side he wasn't going down for the count.
I took a 1 gallon clear square plastic container and the old soldering iron out and fabricated a BonsaiNut-esque container. What a beautifully simplistic idea, easy to fabricate and effective! :thumbsup:
In any case I was able to catch the male with my hand, he was hiding under a large Squamosa mantle and didn't even put up a fight. Scooped him up and tossed him in. I didn't have a lot of time at home before I had another appointment so I had to feed all my other clown pairs, juvis, larvae, rots, etc.. and the other reefs shortly thereafter. So, of course, he wasn't in the mood for eating.
When I got home in the evening I basically just observed for a couple hours. The female was NOT HAPPY that she couldn't sink her teeth into him. She looked like a plecostamus (sp) sucking on that container. :lol: The male amazingly displayed the submissive behavior, albeit very weakly. Then he just kind of said "screw this" and ignored her. His breathing seemed to be pretty good and he was sitting at the bottom of the container but he was moving his fins and not simply sitting there so I have some hope for him. Tried to give him some NLS pellets before bed but he still wasn't in the mood for feeding.
Before I shot out the door at 4:30 AM for work I shined a flashlight into the tank and he was actually swim sleeping high up in the container
So my goal will now be to get him eating again to rebuild and revitalize his condition.
Regardless of some of the recent posts in the Clownfish forums as of late I think that there are some terrific, helpful people in here. You guys and gals are a credit to the forum and your thoughts and advice have always led me in a positive direction. Can't thank you all enough.
Kurt
On the bright side he wasn't going down for the count.
I took a 1 gallon clear square plastic container and the old soldering iron out and fabricated a BonsaiNut-esque container. What a beautifully simplistic idea, easy to fabricate and effective! :thumbsup:
In any case I was able to catch the male with my hand, he was hiding under a large Squamosa mantle and didn't even put up a fight. Scooped him up and tossed him in. I didn't have a lot of time at home before I had another appointment so I had to feed all my other clown pairs, juvis, larvae, rots, etc.. and the other reefs shortly thereafter. So, of course, he wasn't in the mood for eating.
When I got home in the evening I basically just observed for a couple hours. The female was NOT HAPPY that she couldn't sink her teeth into him. She looked like a plecostamus (sp) sucking on that container. :lol: The male amazingly displayed the submissive behavior, albeit very weakly. Then he just kind of said "screw this" and ignored her. His breathing seemed to be pretty good and he was sitting at the bottom of the container but he was moving his fins and not simply sitting there so I have some hope for him. Tried to give him some NLS pellets before bed but he still wasn't in the mood for feeding.
Before I shot out the door at 4:30 AM for work I shined a flashlight into the tank and he was actually swim sleeping high up in the container
So my goal will now be to get him eating again to rebuild and revitalize his condition.Regardless of some of the recent posts in the Clownfish forums as of late I think that there are some terrific, helpful people in here. You guys and gals are a credit to the forum and your thoughts and advice have always led me in a positive direction. Can't thank you all enough.
Kurt
landlord
New member
Chris - Finding smaller latz is simply a matter of heading down to the basement breeding room. I have about a hundred, with at least 20% of them being jaw deformed culls, which I haven't had the heart to cull. The icing on the cake is that since 99.5% of my post meta juvi have been misbarred they even look like polymnus :lol:
Now that the male has been segregated would there still be any benefit in adding in these franken-jawed latz juvis? Perhaps I could toss in 4 or 5 of 'em just to screw with the female a bit, while the male gets reconditioned. Any thoughts?
landlord
New member
Do you have a link to his article.
Oh and BTW - I just sold the first offspring of your old Onyx pair! They are terrific breeders. The tricky part is keeping my 10 nocturnal apogon parvulus night stalkers from getting the fry before the snagger does.
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
Great to hear that the male is still with us! You're right - the focus should now be on getting him healthy again.
Your experience with the female and the jar is exactly what I have experienced in the past. At first she attacks that jar like crazy. The male is freaked out initially, until he realizes the female can't get to him. Then he starts up with the "let's be friends" tail dancing. Eventually she will get tired of attacking the jar.
Be patient - that is the key. Wait for several days AFTER she stops attacking the jar. You want her completely bored with the jar, the male, everything. When you eventually release the male, you might even want to consider keeping the jar in the tank (empty) until you are sure the pair has rebonded. That way she will be confused because the jar is still there but the male is swimming around. And make sure you let him out at night - because she will be much less aggressive then.
Good luck! I've got my fingers crossed!
Your experience with the female and the jar is exactly what I have experienced in the past. At first she attacks that jar like crazy. The male is freaked out initially, until he realizes the female can't get to him. Then he starts up with the "let's be friends" tail dancing. Eventually she will get tired of attacking the jar.
Be patient - that is the key. Wait for several days AFTER she stops attacking the jar. You want her completely bored with the jar, the male, everything. When you eventually release the male, you might even want to consider keeping the jar in the tank (empty) until you are sure the pair has rebonded. That way she will be confused because the jar is still there but the male is swimming around. And make sure you let him out at night - because she will be much less aggressive then.
Good luck! I've got my fingers crossed!
Kurt
Here is a link to where I can find a mention of it. I thought previously it was a longer article on the bonding process but I cannot find it. Perhaps they cleaned up the many articles on them to this one.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=476
Here is a link to where I can find a mention of it. I thought previously it was a longer article on the bonding process but I cannot find it. Perhaps they cleaned up the many articles on them to this one.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=476
landlord
New member
Well I am happy to report that the Love is Back!
I did a release from the plastic holding container last week so it's been about 7 days since release. There was some intial aggression so I decided to relocated a piece of liverock which in turn made one of the BTA's move. Couldn't have worked out any better. The movement of surroundings / corals threw the female off her guard temporarily and allowed the male to remember how to be submissive :lol:
In any case they are now hanging around each other as they did before the female went nuts-o last month. The male has began regrowing his tail, which was consumed / destroyed by the female so he still looks a bit stubby and his scales have pretty much all grown back. I think he come through with flying colors.
BonsaiNut - Cannot thank you enough for the simple yet highly effective idea.!
Now let's see if they start the egg laying back up
landlord
I did a release from the plastic holding container last week so it's been about 7 days since release. There was some intial aggression so I decided to relocated a piece of liverock which in turn made one of the BTA's move. Couldn't have worked out any better. The movement of surroundings / corals threw the female off her guard temporarily and allowed the male to remember how to be submissive :lol:
In any case they are now hanging around each other as they did before the female went nuts-o last month. The male has began regrowing his tail, which was consumed / destroyed by the female so he still looks a bit stubby and his scales have pretty much all grown back. I think he come through with flying colors.
BonsaiNut - Cannot thank you enough for the simple yet highly effective idea.!
Now let's see if they start the egg laying back up
landlord
landlord
New member
Last note for this thread. The pair finally got back into business yesterday with their first nest since the mauling.
So back to business as usual. I may let them do their thing uninterrupted for a couple of nests before I get back into harvesting fry. I'm just pleased as punch!
Take Care
Kurt
So back to business as usual. I may let them do their thing uninterrupted for a couple of nests before I get back into harvesting fry. I'm just pleased as punch!
Take Care
Kurt
