My Damsel Has Laid Eggs

[snydemi]

For the past several days I have observed what can only be described as strange swimming behavior between my two resident Yellow-tailed Damsels. It appears they have chosen a dark crevice, formed by lace rock adjacent to a piece of artificial brain coral that was added to the tank several days ago, to lay their eggs. The two Damsels appear to have stopped their strange swimming behavior and the larger of the two Damsels has become very protective of the area around the entry to the lace rock crevice. She pecks at hermit crabs that get too close, she confronts any of the other two blue damsels that swim too close, and she even swats at the Panther Grouper with her tail if he gets too close. Its all quite comical. In addition, I have noticed that she will leave the eggs occasionally only to return to fan them with her tail. The area that surrounds the lace rock structure has been systematically excavated by her and she fastidiously cleans the area of debris and algae. My concern is that if the eggs do manage to hatch, they will be devoured by the Panther Grouper! It may be time for a refugium. I will provide an update on the progress of the eggs as soon as there is more to report.

[VDub90]

Welcome to Aquaria Central. My Damsels had laid eggs as well, if they do hatch they will most likely be sucked up the filter or shredded by the powerheads if you have any. If you want to hatch them the best thing to do is move them to a new tank.

[snydemi]

It appears that the eggs didn't make it for what ever reason. It will be interesting to see if the mating ritual begins again between these two fish and if more eggs will be laid. Only time will tell. These two Damsels are very affectionate toward each other and seem inseparable. Marine fish (or marine life in general for that matter) behavior is probably one of things I enjoy most about this hobby. It continues to fascinate.

[mogurnda]

It's great to hear that they have taken to each other so well. You might take a look at the Breeder's Registry (http://www.breedersregistry.org/) to see what is known about rearing. I noticed they had a few species of Dascyllus in there.

[fishman89]

I have 2 yellow tailed damsels and on is significantly bigger than the other but for some reason they dont even show the slightest interest in eachother. Maybe its because I have a clownfish in there with them? I dont know. I would love to have them mate. I woul move them and their eggs into my 25 gallons hospital tank and setup a new Hospital tank just incase sumthing goes wrong. Any ideas on how to get em going? plz help i'd love to have this! :D ;)

[bigfoot]

my 7 day old adopted tank has a 2 inch in diameter area of yellowtail damsel eggs and i have nota clue on what to do i have an empty 30 g tank in garage filtration?
food?
help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

[mogurnda]

It's probably too late for this clutch. For clowns, a bare tank, painted black on 3 sides, with an airstone is often used for rearing. Rotifers are usually the first food, but I don't know if damsel larvae are big enough to eat them.

[fishman89]

so how do we get damsels to mate?

[bigfoot]

man it seems like atousand of em are swimming everywhere i am cathing themwith a breeders net cage thingy going backand forth slowly these things apperantly started to hatch with in 10 min of turning off the lights for bed time i got up to get a glass of water and flipped on the tank and man they were everywhere i caught what must be a hundred of em and it seems like the nest hasnt hatched out 10 percent yet how many eggs do these things lay?????????? im got other tank up tonight but ran out of salt sg is at 1.016 way too low but im gonna get phytoplankton and salt first thing this am! :dance

[bigfoot]

none of them made it i think i might have poisoned them with some fry foog i had but not sure i did get some new food cost me 25 bucks and also got other tank up and going hopefully they spawn again so i can move em i think the net i tried killed them too so better luck next time i guess ill keep ya posted :sad