Domino Damsels Breeding?? What the..

[cannonman]

I have two very large old Domino Damsels in my 75 reef that I've been trying to give away forever.. no luck. The smaller of the two is the size of a silver dollar (his/her body is anyways) and the other one is almost double that size. They have always been together but they didn't hang out or chase each other or anything, then over the last few days I've seen some strange new behavior. They go over to a rock, they seem to inspect it, then they swim next to each other tight up against the rock, more often than not in a vertical position. They both turn almost white in a matter of seconds and the both "vibrate" for lack of a better term. When the swim away the black color returns almost instantly.. they do this all day long now..every few minutes. This has been going on ..for about three days now. Has anybody else had this happen? Are they courting/breeding??? What should I expect next if they are?

 

[molly05]

A hundreds of tiny dominos. Congrat.

 

[cannonman]

seriously now... anybody have them breed in their tanks before?

 

[bill109]

Originally Posted by Cannonman
seriously now... anybody have them breed in their tanks before?
no it would be awesome... would the eggs be eaten by other fish if found?
i had a tiny domino damsel and he was awesome..
i set up a 12 gal for him but then i couldnt put another fish in there so i got rid of him andtook down the 12 gal.
they are cool small... thats it in my oppinion lol
keep us updated if ne thing hapens

 

[xdave]

They are well known for breeding in community tanks. BTW, yours are actually pretty small, they get 5" or so.

 

[cannonman]

So what can I expect as far as their behavior with eggs and what not- any chance of survival? Or just fish food? BTW the bigger of my two IS 5 inches big.. the smaller of the pair is about 3 inches. My big one looks like the one in your pic- very cool. The two of them have spent all day swimming upside down under a rock and cleaning it and dancing with each other.. no eggs or anything yet.. should be interesting.

 

[michaeltx]

I would suspect they would be simliar to clowns since they are part of the same family.
not sure though on what to expect though.
Mike

 

[1journeyman]

Hehe... and clowns get aggressive guarding eggs. These guys will be building siege weapons to atttack their tankmates with...
congrats though. Sounds like your tank is doing well.

 

[larryndana]

in that case don't stick your hand in there.

you might bring back a numb. :scared:

 

[cannonman]

The bigger of the two is already aggressive as all heck! I put an acro frag in there last week and he hit my hand over and over and then when I took my hand out he went and grabbed the acro frag and shook it like a mad dog!!! Now these two have claimed a rock that they clean and "dance" on all day... waiting for the eggs.. I wonder if they will hatch in my tank...

 

[larryndana]

Like stated they are in the same family as Clowns. Maybe looking into how to breed clowns will help.

 

[cannonman]

Yeah, I've read a lot about the raising of clowns, takes some fairly decent dedication and time- I don't know if I want to do that for the dominos- not much of a market for them. That and I don't know if I want to be responsible for bringing any more of them into this world.. then again I have an empty 20 gal tank......

 

[gharner]

congrats!!!!!!!! :cheer: keep us posted every day. haha. seriously though if they lay eggs take some pics.
thanks, and good luck

 

[larryndana]

i think i've seen more dominos sold than most fish in my lfs. the guy always gets like 30 of them and they are gone in a week or two....its quite amazing now that i think of it, never really paid that much attention to it.

 

[cannonman]

I was right, I was watching the tank last night and noticed that the dancing had stopped and the female was just hanging by the rock..chasing away anything that gets too clsoe and the male was out and about like nothing ever happened. I looked real close at the rock that the female is staying under and sure enough, a bazillion eggs are hanging there. The female goes up to them and inspects from time to time and blows a little water here and there on them to remove little specs of whatever.. this is pretty interesting. I have a lot of live rock and all but without removing this rock the eggs are on and putting it in a different tank there's no way any of the fry will survive. I am going to set up a fry tank for these and I hope in the future they will mate again and then I will be ready...

 

[cannonman]

Just an update- NOTHING is safe in my tank any longer, including my hands. These dominos consider adjusting a power head a declaration of war. My coral beauty is beat up, my mag float gets attacked, and my other fish are hiding in cave crapping themselves. I move close to the tank to look at something and they come right up to the tank face to face.... go ahead and try it they say....I move my head to the side to look around them and they move over right in my face again... unreal. I believe these should hatch tonight after lights out.. somebody said four days.. don't know if that's right or not but holy cow.. I don't know how often they will lay eggs but I might be trading these guys in.

 

[cowfishrule]

what happens during feeding time?
if your damsels are this aggressive now...

 

[cannonman]

They eat their fill and as they "attack" the food some gets by them and starts to settle downward where the rest of the fish clean it up- very seldom does a piece of food make it to the bottom/rocks in my tank and on the rare occasion where it does the shrimps, crabs, and snails quickly converge on it. None of the fish try to butt in line when it's chow time- dominos first.