my achilles pair does the mating dance...

[geaux xman]

very synchronize...

you can click it for better quality.

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[Hdhuntr01]

Very clean looking tank. How long has it been up and running? Actually looks like it was just set up yesterday...

 

[Gogandantess]

Very cool. How long have you had the Achilles duo? Any scientific way to determine the sex? Is that Scribbled a male?

 

[geaux xman]

Very clean looking tank. How long has it been up and running? Actually looks like it was just set up yesterday...

thanks. since march 2011.

Very cool. How long have you had the Achilles duo? Any scientific way to determine the sex? Is that Scribbled a male?

thanks. larger achilles since Feb 2012. smaller has been in the DT since around May. I dont think theres anyway to sex them outside of DNA type stuff.

The scribbled is still changing to a male. The body lines near the end of its tail is still blotchy and not straight. The brighter male colors arent there yet either.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I am fairly sure this is aggression/dominance displaying and not mating behavior.

 

[geaux xman]

Thats why they call it a love-hate relationship.

As long as they're not swiping as each other, I'm okay.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

thanks. since march 2011.

Wait. Do you mean your tank has been running 16 months and it is that clean? No corraline algae even? Do you have more rock in the sump? How offer do you feed and wbat is your light and skimmer? What is your maintenance routine?

 

[geaux xman]

Yes, last yr March 2011. About 80% of the rock has been in the tank since around then. No rock in the sump 75g(~50g water).

2 x150w MH(JBJ viper)
SRO3000int skimmer
sock filter

Room lights only almost daily. Metal Halide very occasionally. Thats why I dont get any algae growth. MH gets the room just
way too hot. The room the tank is in doesnt get good A/C and the water is already warmer than I like at this time of yr.
Around 79-80 degrees.

I easily feed 4-6/ day.
-NLS pellets ~3-5x
-PE Mysis 2-3x
-2 maybe 6x6" of nori per day.
Spirulina 20 brand flakes ~1-2x

The larger achilles and true personifer will not take dry food, so I do not go without PE mysis 2x/day. They eat that. All other fish eats everything I listed except for PBT doesn't eat frozens.

I've been doing ~60g WC every 2-3 weeks. Salinity 1.022

 

[sohalfr]

I am fairly sure this is aggression/dominance displaying and not mating behavior.

+1

And I'm afraid it may get worst over time...
They are still juvis with a quite small orange spot...

 

[Recty]

Yep, I've had quite a few tangs do this exact same behavior, different species and it wasnt about love

It does look cool, I agree. And I wish for your sake it was a mating ritual.

In my experience, powder blues, browns, achilles, clown and sohal will all do this tight circled dance around another tang of similar size and body shape. The soft bodied tangs, the achilles/blue/brown, when compared to the sohal and clown, take longer before they escalate to full blown bites and tail swipes.

Writing this makes me miss all my old tangs, they were such great fish

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Sorry but the mating dance for tangs is out in the water colum going up and down in the colum. My Naso's tried it but even with a 3' tall tank, there still wasn't enough room. Keep an eye on them to make sure they do not start attacking each other. Your fish are no where near adult size yet.

My 12" male and 10" female.

 

[geaux xman]

Thanks for the comments guys. I guess we will see how things work out long term. Its really amazing how the achilles can change eye and body colors at will.

My 12" male and 10" female.

Sorry if its a touch subject, but what happened? I see the sig says RIP 8yrs old pr of naso. They look awesome in the pic.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

My GFCI's tripped and all of my pumps went out. They sufficated. I lost 10 fish that night. I've since fixed the problem. You can read about it in my build thread. It was a sad day indeed and has taken me about 3 years to recover and get back into the game.