Satchmo Posted October 13, 2002 Share Posted October 13, 2002 Last week, I added a Royal Gramma to my 10g that housed a false perc. They've been getting along fine- the gramma is in & out of the rockwork, and the clown hangs out mostly in and around my frogspawn. But yesterday I saw them interacting in a pretty bizarre way. The clown would approach the gramma, then they'd both almost rub up against eachother, slowly circling, and drifting with the current. They would drift, sort of slowly tumbling to the perpendicular while doing this. And the whole time, the gramma would open up his mouth wide and keep it like that. It was comical. We got a kick out of these 2 freaks for the better part of an hour, at which point I dropped in some food, and they both went their own way. It almost looks like mating behavior if I didn't know any better. Has anyone seen anything like this? Any idea what the hell they're doing? Thanks. Link to comment
Crakeur Posted October 13, 2002 Share Posted October 13, 2002 maybe they're just getting friendly. I would just be happy that they aren't killing eachother. Link to comment
Mnesarchus Posted October 13, 2002 Share Posted October 13, 2002 Those are the fish I am planning for my 10g, and it sounds like they will have an interesting relationship! Sounds like they are getting pretty 'close' Link to comment
Bocephous Posted October 13, 2002 Share Posted October 13, 2002 I have a Clown and Orchid Dottyback, they just take turns chasing each other. If you get those two to mate I want one of the offspring. Link to comment
invert Posted October 13, 2002 Share Posted October 13, 2002 I am sorry to put a downer on this experience but from experience I have found that the circling behaviour is just there way of sizing each other up and the gramma opening his mouth is a warning and also an attempt to look big and menacing. The same thing happed with my gramma and my six-line wrasse in a 160 gal reef. The wrasse started to chase the gramma non-stop all day but luckily for me they set up their territories but they still don’t like each other. Link to comment
BustytheSnowMaam Posted October 15, 2002 Share Posted October 15, 2002 I think they were trying to figure out who the alpha fish is, shimmying is a submissive response (would two fish of different species do this? I don't know). Tasha Link to comment
spoondigity Posted October 15, 2002 Share Posted October 15, 2002 I agree with Invert. Grammas look like they are yawning when they are posturing agressively. If the clown begins to straighten its body and look rigid and then shake, that is a sign that the clown is posturing also. In my experience with two clowns in the same tank, after they postured for awhile they eventually began to fight pretty viciously and I had to remove one. Hopefully your fish will work things out. Link to comment
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