Mating Rituals

[Thyra]

I will probably blunder into this, but the mating rituals of fish baffle me. The bettas seem to be pretty will documentedl, but with the common live bearers not so much. Oh, I know when they are actually mating but right now I seem to have another phenomenon. I have three sunset platies, the largest being about 1.25 inches, the other two a scant inch. The larger one looks pregnant, but she is small and at least one of the others acts male, but because of their small size I can't be certain of either one. For a couple of days now the female and the smaller of the other two are doing what looks like a little dance in one corner of the tank. The male keeps his nose right near her oviduct and then they go back and forth - but she is not trying to get away from him and they stay in about a 3 inch cube. The third platy approaches every few minutes and the other small platy charges and he goes back to the opposite corner and waits for a few minutes and tries again.

I can't see any attempts to breed nor have I seen any fry - unless they are getting funneled directly into the little male's mouth. Maybe they are just kids playing like grown-ups. No one seems stress or hurt and they don't seem to mind the other larger mollies in the tank. (They are a different color - green tuxedos) It is probably just normal fish behavior which we normally don't get to observe unless we are doing a lot of just "sitting around" which I happened to be doing.

 

[FishDad]

Fish breeding is a new frontier for me. I've got two cichlids both holding eggs. The amount of attention to child rearing that cichlds give is pretty incredible to witness.

 

[exhumed07]

i have guppies and they just seem to chase the female and quickly flip up and impregnate her. as for the platty i'm not sure. it may be some kinda mating dance.

and fish dad i totally agree but because of the over crowding in my tanks i strip my females after 11 days into a breeding net. otherwise when they spit the babies out they are almost instantly eaten. a couple may survive in my rocks cause of the millions of holes and tunnels in them. i try to breed to avoid paying for my tanks. with the exception of tank purchases themselves i have not paid for anything out of pocket for my fish in years. fry pay for food and my plant trimmings pay for my excel and more plants

 

[FishDad]

Thats a pretty good system.

I can't for the life of me catch the two holding females. I'd like to get them into the QT if I could but they hide pretty well in the rocks. And I really try, at all cost to avoid removing those do to there size and weight. I'm to nervous about cracking the glass. The couple times I did have to move them was a dicey adventure.

You got any tricks up your sleeve?

 

[Thyra]

Well, I still haven't decided what these two fish think they are doing because if the small one is the male, he has never been in the right position to do what he is suppose to do - he is under her but upright all the time. On the other hand, she - being the one on top - doesn't leave him - if indeed he is a him. It is an interesting process that seems to go nowhere.

 

[exhumed07]

not really fishdad. one thing i may suggest is start feeding ur fish by hand. my maingano will let me pet him and when i had my acei they would let me nearly pick them up. they get used to my hands being in the tank. i clean my tanks by hand and they peck at my arm hair. so i kinda corral them and then net them. but i also don't have rocks in my tank like u have. i got maybe 30 pounds of what my lfs calls holy boulders. like limestone rocks with lots and lots of hols in them. but my catfish and maingano lab hybrid male takes the whole cave system to themselves. so most my fish are out and about. i realy should do more rocks and caves but i have a giant chunk of driftwood in my tank that goes from the bottom left side all the way up out of the water at an angle about 2/3-3/4 of the way across the tank. it's pretty hefty lol.

 

[FishDad]

Thats funny about the Acei. Mine used to nearly jump out of the tank when I fed him.

Thyra, how long has this courtship been going on?

 

[Thyra]

It appears to continue, but I can tell you if the small one is really the male, he better figure out he can't breed with his nose or mouth. Actually that is one of the things I really wonder about - most of the time in the animals I know they use scent to tell when the female is ready. I really didn't know if fish could smell, but than recently OC made a comment about them 'smelling" the food so I am wondering if that is a part of their procreation.

 

[FishDad]

So, as of this morning one of my electric blues is now holding eggs. Thats reassuring since I though they were both females, as they have yet to color. I bought two to up my chances of getting a male. So that makes a OB Peacock, Red Top Mbuna, and an Electric Blue Hap all holding. Here's hoping some of the fry survive.

 

[exhumed07]

I got rid of all my electric blues. I got bored with them lol. I had 20 in my 55.

 

[FishDad]

How long did it take for your males to color up?