Mates for life, breeding and male aggression

[Fredfish]

On Sunday I had the opportunity to watch my horses go through their breeding routine for the first time.

Now, I have two males and a female, so it wasn't quite what I expected. In fact, It was more like a wwf tag-team match.

Basically I watched two males compete to breed with my female. It involved two males displaying to the female while chasing her around the entire tank.

When the males were not busy chasing the female, they were busy blocking each other from the female or chasing each other around. Several times I watched the males spiral around each other while rising in the water column. Their physicality toward each other seemed limited to shoving each other away from the female.

I did observe both males nipping at the female more than once.

Mostly I think the female was put off by the whole thing. I think the pair were close to egg transfer at one point, but were disrupted by the other male.

Is there anyone else out there with a mmf trio that has observed this?

Has anyone else observed male aggression between tank inhabitants?

It really was pretty darn wild at times!

Fred

 

[Wink]

Male agression in this situation is not unusual. I actually had to separate two males as I couldn't stand to watch them snicking at each other and I was afraid nobody was going to manage to breed with all the interupted courting.

I've also seen an "extra" female disrupt a courting pair and compete for the male's attention, although the females don't seem to be as aggressive about it.

If the female was displaying mating colors then likely she was playing hard to get, but really was interested.

 

[Fredfish]

This is the first time I have witnessed this, but it must have been going on for a while.

My female originally bonded with the (much) larger male, but he has been busy for the last 8 months and is now actually a little smaller than the other.

I may need to separate them if it becomes too much of an issue, even if it is only for a day or two during breeding.

Both males were showing breeding colours. I have never seen the female change colour.

Fred