potterjon
New member
I maintain a tank for a business here in town and have been maintaining it for over three years. I have no idea how old these Ocellaris are but one is much bigger than the other so I assume that is the female and the male is much smaller. About a third the size of the female. As long as I have maintained the tank they have been fairly friendly to one another but lately things are changing. This morning the smaller one looked a little beat up and was sleeping on his side. They were sort of nesting together in the corner. I am never there in the morning when the lights come on so I am not so sure of their morning ritual with each other. But this was when the lights were off so I assumed everything was ok. As soon as the lights turned they were both sort of swimming around but the small one seems lethargic and has tattered fins. He swims around every once in awhile but goes back to his corner and just sort of lays there which is not normal for him. The larger one looks fine. I am assuming these two have been together for over 5 yrs before I took the tank over so they have been together for roughly 8 plus years. Water params check out fine and I just did a routine water change two days ago. So my question is this.
Is it possible that the smaller one is just now sexing into a male or possibly a female and therefore the larger one is just beating up on it? Is it possible this is pre spawning behavior? The smaller one is not twitching or anything from what I can tell, he just looks kind of lethargic, and his or her bellys are not swollen. He sort of rolls over when the female comes close by but I don't see them displaying the typical spawning behavior that I have read about. Such as twitching, etc.
Salinity is 1.023 and the tank has been set up for years. It is a 90 gallon mixed reef. Like I stated before, these two have been together for a long time, so why now?
Is it possible that the smaller one is just now sexing into a male or possibly a female and therefore the larger one is just beating up on it? Is it possible this is pre spawning behavior? The smaller one is not twitching or anything from what I can tell, he just looks kind of lethargic, and his or her bellys are not swollen. He sort of rolls over when the female comes close by but I don't see them displaying the typical spawning behavior that I have read about. Such as twitching, etc.
Salinity is 1.023 and the tank has been set up for years. It is a 90 gallon mixed reef. Like I stated before, these two have been together for a long time, so why now?
