Female behavior after breeding

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R

rlane

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 6, 2012
310
87
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Morristown, NJ
I recently added a new male BD about a month or so ago and once he settled in, within a day or two he was going after my mature female non stop. He bit her up pretty good to the point that she started to go off her typical feed. I removed the female and put her by her self into one of my two 125 gallon sumps which are plumped like additional aquariums. I had her in there for about 2-3 weeks and she was eating and all her bites healed up nicely. She wouldn't eat with the same aggressiveness as she did prior to the male going after her but she was eating. She has been putting on weight but she did seem to be eating enough to put on the weight that she was putting on. A few days ago I put her back into the main tank and she is doing nicely up there, and the male has not shown any breeding behavior towards her. She is still eating a little bit each day but no where like she was a month ago, she was my most aggressive eater and ever since the male tried to breed her the first time she is a very lazy feeder. Have you guys seen this behavior before? Do you think it is possible that the male got the job done prior to me separating them? It has only been three weeks at the most so I would imagine that even if she is pregnant it is still way too early for to be putting size on from the pups but having never bred rays before I have no experience to go off of. What do you guys think?
 
Within weeks of my female being bred her appetite increased by multiple times but stress as I've recently learned reduces the food consumption substantially and it takes time for them to come back around to usual eating habits.






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I have normally noticed a ramp up in the amount of food a gravid female will consume but having said that I have never moved a female I suspected was pregnant , only separated them . So I would be interested to know if moving her was a factor. Did you catch her in a net or box?


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jim barry said:
I have normally noticed a ramp up in the amount of food a gravid female will consume but having said that I have never moved a female I suspected was pregnant , only separated them . So I would be interested to know if moving her was a factor. Did you catch her in a net or box?


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Jim,

I caught her with a large 24" rubber net, she swam into it and was out of the tank and into the new tank in under 15 seconds. I would not have moved her if I thought she was pregnant.

As I stated, she has been back in the big tank for 3 days or so and the male hasn't shown any interest in breeding her again. If she isn't gravid now, wouldn't the male be all over her again? I guess there is no way to be sure but would love to hear what you guys think.
 
Recently I have had a similar question. I caught my male breeding the female, sperm plug was in there and everything, great. So i divided, she wasn't the happiest for a couple days, but definitely got her appetite back, its been a month and I haven't noticed a GIANT increase in the food she eats I have simply been feeding more and there has been no issues with leftover food as always. Anyway, the divider failed one day and the male got in with the 2 females. I figured since I was home I would watch them. Well male started chasing her again and latched onto her disk. This had me questioning everything, sperm plug was 100% in there, but could it have not stuck? I understood males mostly leave them alone when they are pregnany, but some will never leave them alone no matter what, is this correct? Don't mean to derail thread but its along the same lines, its 34 days today and I havent noticed her put on any size. After breeding her, 2 hours later he was back at attacking her again... do I just have a horny male that doesn't get to leave the pregnant ones alone or did the pregnancy not take?
 
Hi mate
I have no idea if the male would be all over her again or not bud, that's my interest in this thread. Does moving a potential mother from beefing attempts break the breeding cycle. Very interesting if you ask me. Be sure to keep us updated on progress please buddy.


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davenmandy said:
Recently I have had a similar question. I caught my male breeding the female, sperm plug was in there and everything, great. So i divided, she wasn't the happiest for a couple days, but definitely got her appetite back, its been a month and I haven't noticed a GIANT increase in the food she eats I have simply been feeding more and there has been no issues with leftover food as always. Anyway, the divider failed one day and the male got in with the 2 females. I figured since I was home I would watch them. Well male started chasing her again and latched onto her disk. This had me questioning everything, sperm plug was 100% in there, but could it have not stuck? I understood males mostly leave them alone when they are pregnany, but some will never leave them alone no matter what, is this correct? Don't mean to derail thread but its along the same lines, its 34 days today and I havent noticed her put on any size. After breeding her, 2 hours later he was back at attacking her again... do I just have a horny male that doesn't get to leave the pregnant ones alone or did the pregnancy not take?
Click to expand...

Horny male just like mine bud. What you describe sounds more like a gravid female . My male latched onto a female who I thought was gravid to the point I had to beat him off her . Within 10 minutes after doing this I separated her, this was around 6 weeks of thinking this female was gravid so was surprised to witness the male doing this. Anyway she had pups A few months later . She was definitely already gravid when I witnessed the male chewing on her.


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Nope, sometimes they will let up for a little but they usually always start biting the female again twards the end of the pregnancy. Keeping them separated helps against premature pups


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