Last night, when I went to feed the fish, all of the blennies came out to feed aggressively except one of the males kept hiding in his shell. This is the blenny that I dubbed, "King", because at one time, he was king of the tank. He no longer is, as the other males caught up to him in size and can hold their own against him while defending their piece of the rock. "King", staying hidden and not eating reminded me of the behavior of the one that went blind, so I was quite concerned.
After I finished dispersing the food, I decided to shine a light in the shell and see if he was OK or if I could find signs of disease. Just as I picked up the flashlight, he came out to feed, so I shined my light into the shell, and lo and behold, I found eggs. He was guarding eggs! This confirms my thoughts on a question that I had, that one female will breed with multiple males. I've seen two other males hiding out like this, the first was the one that I filmed guarding eggs a couple months ago. The second male blenny acted the same way, but I couldn't verify if he was guarding eggs or not, because his territory is in the back of the tank. This blenny was right in front. How convenient!
So, I went upstairs to grab my phone, brought it down and set it up on my tripod and waited for him to leave his shell and catch a vid of him guarding the eggs and also a good shot of the eggs. It took about an hour, and he came out to fight off a rival male, and gave me the opportunity to get a shot.
I have two videos, and I'll post the other one tomorrow. This is the second video that I shot, but it has a close up of the eggs, so I thought that I'd share it first. It also features what the other fish in the tank are up to. Hope you like it.
After I finished dispersing the food, I decided to shine a light in the shell and see if he was OK or if I could find signs of disease. Just as I picked up the flashlight, he came out to feed, so I shined my light into the shell, and lo and behold, I found eggs. He was guarding eggs! This confirms my thoughts on a question that I had, that one female will breed with multiple males. I've seen two other males hiding out like this, the first was the one that I filmed guarding eggs a couple months ago. The second male blenny acted the same way, but I couldn't verify if he was guarding eggs or not, because his territory is in the back of the tank. This blenny was right in front. How convenient!
So, I went upstairs to grab my phone, brought it down and set it up on my tripod and waited for him to leave his shell and catch a vid of him guarding the eggs and also a good shot of the eggs. It took about an hour, and he came out to fight off a rival male, and gave me the opportunity to get a shot.
I have two videos, and I'll post the other one tomorrow. This is the second video that I shot, but it has a close up of the eggs, so I thought that I'd share it first. It also features what the other fish in the tank are up to. Hope you like it.