Pairing longnosed hawkfish

Moort82

Moort82

New member
Hi, has anyone had much success doing this. I got one on tuesday and then another on wednesday as i wanted to try pairing them. As the light had been on between the two introductions i thought it was safe to assume no territories had been developed.
I've read it can be world war 3 when trying this so was prepared with a net close by but they seem to get on perfectly. Is this likely to change as they mature or have i been lucky and got a male and female (i know they are protogynous hermaphrodites)?

036.jpg


Thanks
 
I wish you good luck with this. I purchased an already-established pair a couple months ago; they are still a pair (or so it appears). They have really been fun to watch interact.
 
I had one a few years ago and its something i always wanted to try. Just so happend that i added a seperate tank on the system to breed clownfish in, so have the perfect tank to seperate them if i need to.
 
I've read that the male has a bit of black on his tail fin and ventral fin. It looks to me like they are getting along :) If they aren't fighting now, I wouldn't worry.
 
Vinny Kreyling said:
I have 3 in my 220 and they get along.
Pair????
Click to expand...

They are protogynous hermaphrodites so they usually have a harem in the wild. They are all born female and then as they mature the more dominant one becomes male and breeds with the remaining females. If you have three adults that get along you most likely have one male and two females.
 
Well it wasn't all "lets be friends" yesterday. The smaller one started to chase the slightly bigger one. At one point it clamped its anal fin but only for a second or so. No damage has been done and it does leave the other alone most of the time and they do still sit next to one another. Hopefully this is just a show of dominance and that one will turn into the male.
I've got some percula clowns pairing at the moment and i'd say its a similar squabbling, not bad but enough that you notice it.

I'll keep you updated and maybe add a few pics later.
 
I can't suggest any tips. I'm not sure if they are a pair yet its early days. I have seen that its best to go for one considerably smaller than the other and you'd really want to add them together. Not sure how'd you get on adding one to an establish fish.
 
Evening update. The larger of the two appears to be less dominant. The smaller one does all the chasing and i'm not sure if it is due to this that the larger one has a split tail fin, it could also be the coral beauty welcoming it. Still appears to be fairly peaceful and they do hang out near each other alot and any aggression comes when the smaller one sees the larger from the other side of the tank.
 
Just an up date on how they are getting on. The smaller one has definately the aggressor. For the last couple of days it had the other in hiding . No real damage was done, no scrapes or anything on the body but there was a tiny bit out of the tail.
Then today it has gone back to how they were. Seemilingly enjoying each others company, resting on one another and only the occasional fin flaring from the more dominant fish.
So hopefully the places in the relationship have been chosen and thy can build a strong pair bond.

I'll try and keep this up to date incase anyone is wanting to try the same little project.
 
Just a quick update, still early days as its only been 9 days but the bickering seems to have mostly stopped. I didin't even see any fin flaring yesterday and they are comfortable with each other.

Here's a couple more pics

004-1.jpg
 
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