Yellowtail blue damsel

[Kahuna Tuna]

I had a mated pair of Parasema damselfish (the yellowtail) that had spawned countless times in the last four years until I lost the male after a pump failure. The female seemed quite beside herself and was looking for the male for days to fertilize her eggs, it was really quite sad.

Last week I made it down to civilization and decided to try and pair her up again and purchased a small (too small it seems) juvenile yellowtail. Within literally 10 seconds of being added to the display she is attempting to spawn with him and is trying to lure him back to her spawning area, a small cave in the LR.

He was just too small and I doubt if he is even sexually mature (he didnt seem to know what he was supposed to do) and it looked like she was getting really frustrated and chased him all over the tank. I figured she would kill him at some point but here we are a week later and they are starting to hang out together. I'm thinking they will be mated very soon.

 

[Reefing Newbie]

Sorry for you loss. Very cool that you have been able to get a new one to replace the male so fast! I had something similar with ocellaris clownfish. I brought my lone male(I thought it was female for being alone for over a month) to the LFS where they put him in a tank with a small juvi. The juvi was putting on the male moves and my clown saw him and swam the other way lol.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

I think its going to work, not only is he still alive but they are hanging out together. This is the smallest fish I have ever kept, he's barely 1/2 inch long and I think my doliatus rabbit could actually swallow him if it wanted.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

Success! I'm so proud, my little man busted his nut yesterday for the first time and took care of his girl. I'm just really glad she didn't kill him before he finally figured out what he was supposed to do.