Mating???

[cerickson]

I have two percs, one of each sex..

 

Now Just recently i noticed them acting kind of wierd, and I hope they are just going through acts of mating, not something caused by the water or anything.

 

1. They seem to be nipping at each other a little bit lately, kinda like playing, nothing damaging so far.

 

2. When the one that I think is the female comes by sometimes, the male seems to shake, almost like a seizure, shimmying really fast for a second or two near the female..

 

Is 2 a common act for mating or should i be worried about something else?

[gabbeyshell]

1) are they a mated pair

2) is one slighty larger then the other

 

what i'm trying to get at is percs are unsexed when juvenile then they turn when 2 are together. the bigger one hince the female. they do spare-fight and twitch. usually the one who does the twitching is the male showing his giving up so to speak. there is a book by a lady about mating clown fish. it is a highly recommended book on nano-reef when i first started. the sparing is fine as long as the male who is getting beat up isn't getting ripped to shreds. my took all of 1 month to mate. now he follows her everywhere even sleeps besides her. she every now and then will show her female power and gets him in line. everythin is normal at this point.

[Aiptasia]

Sounds like courting behavior to me. Clownfish are very easy to breed, although raising the fry can be a little tricky. I agree with gabbyshell, try to find a good book on raising baby clownfish. Clowns usually like to spawn on rockwork or in underhangs/caves very close to their host anemonies (if they have one) and will do a good job of cleaning and protecting the eggs until the fry hatch out.

 

When they hatch, the fry will be about the size of zooplankton (pods, etc.) and can easily be predated on by corals and hungry mouthed fish, so it's often better to move the brood before hatching into a well cycled rearing tank. After they've absorbed their yolk sacs (within 48-72 hours after hatching) they'll be ready to feed on rotifers, phytoplankton, zooplankton and baby brine shrimps.

 

They will eat constantly and need to be fed five to eight times a day or more. Having a few snails in your rearing tank will help, as they can eat some uneaten foods that settle out of the water column. You'll need to change the water fairly often (50% each day) and use some airline tubing to siphon out uneaten food, detritus and losses each day with the water change.

 

Once again, find a good book on rearing clownfish fry at your LFS or www.drsfostersmith.com

[cerickson]

Can they be kept with the parents ???

[1fish2fish]

The book you are refering to is probably this one...

 

"Clownfishes" by joyce Wilkerson

 

not a bad book, but I personally prefer the one by Frank Hoff.

 

"Conditioning, Spawning, and Rearing of Fish with an Emphasis on Marine Clownfish" by Frank Hoff

 

Both can be bought from Aquatic Ecosystems

 

www.aquaticeco.com

 

The young can not be kept with the parents. Once they hatch out htey are 100% on their own. You have to either remove the spawn fromt he parents tank the night of the hatch or collect them from the main tank by using a flashlight. They are attracted tot he light so you can scoop em up with a small container (pumps need to be off). The larvae need rotifers for the first five days or so, followed by artemia.

[gabbeyshell]

that would be the one. thanks

[phishen]

Whew, my two clowns were doing this the day after I put them in the tank. I thought it was something wrong in the water and I tested it a million times! (almost) Well it's good to know it's normal behavior, I just don't want them to have babies just yet. I have no where to put them!

[Wonder Boy]

I thought the seizers thing was courting in my new perks, the the female refused to let the male eat and chased him under the lr until the turned white. She's history, and he's doing fine.