Please enlighten me..

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sick_lid

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 24, 2008
1,145
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Austin, TX
Get ready to read.

I purchased 3 petsmart "red devils" close to a month ago in hopes for a male, a pair would work too. My question; in the past week or so, the biggest one has cleaned out this sort of fenced in area, and constantly "humps" this rock. I'm talking almost 4/5 of the day, it does this back and forth gesture against this rock. I've never dealt with breeding or anything, but the things vent is huge, and theres never eggs. When it's not doing this, it is chasing the other 2, more aggressive with one. When i turn the lights on in the morning, the big one sort of chases the one it is less aggressive with, doing this flirty gill flaring thing side by side, and this one chases the third as well (which is constantly behind the intake from both.) Please excuse my non-knowledge, but what is going on?! It seems like breeding behavior, but the bigger one just chases everything all the time, and then goes back to hump this rock. Male, female? I appreciate any help.. I didn't post this in breeding because of the large midas/rd following we have here. Thanks all.
 
yeah sounds like breeding behavior to me. is the one rubbing on the rock's vent large and rounded? it sounds like that is the female and she is preparing to lay eggs, how big are they? how large is the tank? i would remove the one that they are both being mean to before they kill him
 
The vent looks abnormally large to me, and points forward a bit. The one it is LESS aggro to (about an inch smaller) has a little pointy one, and the third shows nothing. I'm just curious as for the sexes.. The 3 are in a 75 with a full grown senegal bichir and 8" pleco (our pushover petsmart tank.) As said before just got the 3 to keep a male in there for life, but if 2 paired, it would be their home alone.
 
the size of the fish doesn't really matter. The fish with the pointy vent is male and the other fish who is prepping the spot she has chosen for laying has a rounded vent then it is female. The 3rd fish who is not showing should be removed before the other 2 pair up lay and eventually kill it. I have seen this happen in my own tanks. Generally they are fine during the early stages but once the fry are large enough and adventures enough the pearents will move the swarm of fry around the tank and take over the whole tank. This is when it is most likely the 1 on its own will be killed.
HTH
 
well size matters in whether they are sexually mature or not, but yes i agree like i said the one with the rounded vent rubbing on the rock is the female. and just so you know, while a 75g is big enough for a lone male it is definitely NOT large enough for a breeding pair, one will eventually end up killing the other during marital abuse because the tank is large enough for them to get away from each other if need be once they are full grown. IMO a full grown pair will need a 125g tank to be happy
 
I have experienced with other amp species that, when the largest fish in the tank is female, a spawn is difficult. The female is looking for a "real man" and if the boys do not measure up, they get spanked. If you are interested in breeding this species, I suggest looking for a larger or similar-sized male.
 
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