Singling out one female

[Peckoltia]

Hi

I have a group of hybrid rays (Mantilla x Motoro x Leopoldi) in my 8x3x2.5' consisting of 1m and 3f. All of the rays are fairly young, with the three girls being 2 years old and the boy about 18months old. One of the girls has already given birth to two healthy pups, the same girl is now pregnant again, and by my calculations is due to give birth in the next week.

The boy only ever appears to have any interest in the one female, and leaves the other two alone almost completely. This boy is fairly gentle anyway, even with the girl he mates he leaves minimal damage. The female that is due to give birth is the smallest of the three at ~14" and the other two girls are around the 16" mark. So I would think, that being the same age and larger the two other girls would also be mature.

I have never had this issue in the past, and my past male would mate with multiple females - he wasn't fussy.

I guess my options at this stage would be to remove the male (which I may do anyway to give the girl a break) - and hopes the move and reintroduction may spark him into action when introduced to all the girls - a bit of a brain reset.

Or get another male and test it out? I have a spare 200gal I could rotate males through to give the girls a break and change the group up a bit.

Thanks,

 

[rich81090]

I have this very situation, I have two female marble motoros and 1 male, the male has got the same female pregnant 3 times now and hasn't even looked at the other one. I two wondered about getting another male, I am just not sure whether to add another male and leave the current one in or remove him and add a new one.

I wanted him to split his attention between the two ideally.

 

[CANAMONSTER]

As Dieselhybrid mentioned in a previous thread, male to one specific female is very common. What is ideal is two pairs or multiple pairs maybe

 

[Dieselhybrid]

I always use multiple males. If I could have a trio for breeding, I think chances are better with 2m 1f than 2f 1m as most people prefer. I think the multiple males really get the competition started. I have one male that only bred with one mate for years. Added another male and he bred with every female in the tank over the course of the next year. I believe it was him claiming territory and a result of the additional male.

Good luck

 

[Peckoltia]

Thanks for the replies - obviously an 'issue' that seems to pop up more than I though. I have never had this happen in the past.

Girl gave birth to 3 healthy pups last night and the male mated her again repetitively for the next hour - heaps of semen floating around the tank, all over his claspers and a big dirty sperm plug in her as well as what looked like another sperm plug on the floor of the tank that one of the rays ate.

I am going to remove the male to a spare 200 gal for the next 6-8 months and give this girl a rest. I have been offered a great little pup that I may grow out and add to the mix later down the track or have been offered another mature male. Either way this will be the 3rd batch for this girl back to back - so definitely needs some time off.

2 of the 3 pups born last night.