pairing maroon clowns, anyone gone past 3 days?

[mrbottom]

Hi guys,

I finally found a nice looking maroon male for the large female I have in my BTA tank.

This is the first time I've tried pairing maroons so I've followed the instructions in the Q&A section.
My male has been in a clear specimen holder this morning and the female took a look but she never strays far from her nems so I thought I'd let him out and see how it went.
The first time out and he pegged it straight for the largest nem (wild caught) which I thought would cause a bit of a kick off! I was right! she wasn't best pleased to see some fella pitched up in her living room!
She nipped him and he shot straight back out and hid around the corner, she found him about ten minutes later and went for him again, he did the shimmy and she backed off for a while.
Anyway she turned a bit nasty again so I put him back in the container to calm down over night.

I'm going to try again tomorrow and see how it goes, I'd really like to get these two together as they are cracking specimens and would make a great breeding pair. Decent white stripe maroons are really hard to come by over here (UK) at the moment.

My question is has anyone pushed a pairing past the three day rule? will she eventually give in?

I was talking to a guy down at one of the LFS and he said it had once taken 3 months to pair a couple of maroons, I did check to see if his nose was growing!

Any help or experiences would be great

cheers

[tufacody]

I just threw my male in and let them do their thing. She beat the crap out of him for about 10 days, then it was all lovey-dovey. I'm not a fan of sticking hands in and out of the tank during the pairing process.

[mrbottom]

wow! that's one way to go! I'm kind of worried she'll kill him.

I guess that proves that eventually they'll settle down though and like I said I think these two would make great brood stock.

I'll let him out again today and hope she settles down in the first three days, she's not damaging him at the moment so if she still hasn't settled by day 3 I might keep trying a bit longer.

cheers

[nauticac4]

I let mine go at it for about a week until everything finally settled. Almost a year to the day after they laid their first clutch of eggs.

[tydtran]

On my first attempt, I took the "just throw him in there and let nature take's it's course" approach. The little male was dead by the end of day 1.

On my second attempt, I did what you're doing. It took 10 days of the little guy sitting in an acrylic box. For the first three days, the female attacked him every time I let him out. I was starting to think it would not work so I left the male in the box in sight of the female for 7 days. After 7 days, on a whim, I let him out and there was no problem whatsoever. So my advice is just give it some time.

[mrbottom]

Thanks for the replys guys!
It does seem then you can do it going much longer than three days.
she took a chunk out of his tail today so I put him back in the box and now she's spending much more time out of her nem and up near the box. Initially the male in the box was really panicing but he's calmed down he's realised he's safe, this seems to have calmed her down as well as she's just hanging out up there with trying to do a bank job on the perspex.
I'm going to try a release tomorrow around lunch time, giving her a bit of time to remember he's up there, if she gets really nasty again I'll leave him in the box for a couple of days then try again.

cheers

[dalilgriffith]

take a two liter bottle and cut a bunch of small circulation holes... put a much larger hole in the bottle that the male (future male) could leave when it feels like it should but the female cannot enter.. Put the male in the bottle, and give it time. It works if its going to work at all

[nick18tjetta]

I have paired maroons twice, both times with a large female established in the tank and I added a juvenile for her mate. Both times it went without a hitch, and within the day they were "Lovey Dovey".

[PACHY-FAN]

I put my male into a clear strawberry container with fishing line tied to it and lowered the container closer to her and her nem every day for 4 days until he was right above them and in a day or 2 after that I released him and she hasnt gone crazy on him. They r happy in the nem.

[MM WI]

In the end you are going to have to let them sort it out anyway. One advantage to keeping him for a day or two in the container with some circulation with the main tank is he will not smell so much like an intruder when released. One reason new fish have trouble with the established fish is they will smell slightly different as they came from different water with different waste in it. Not sure you are getting much from the pauses. The game just needs to be played out. In my experience the males will survive the experience with an eventual pair nine times out of ten. Really not worth getting worked up about. Nature is what it is.

- Mark

[mrbottom]

RESUUUUUULTT!!!!!!

For the last two days the female hasn't been as nasty with the male then this morning they actually fed together then she pecked at him to go away.

This evening I came home from the gym and fed them again and they both suddenly dived in the nem together after feeding!! GET IN THERE MY SON!!!

18 days!

cheers for your help on this guys I was ready to pull him out on day three

stuart

[tufacody]

great job! I'd say that's about what mine took as well. Should be lovey-dovey from here on out.