lorteti breeding

Are your puffers feeling a little naughty & lil ones are the result? Post your findings here!
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pikehead
Puffer Fry
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Jun 01, 2014 12:07 pm
Location (country): United States

lorteti breeding

Post by pikehead »

I have a male housed alone in a 25 gallon (red sea max cube style tank) and two females housed in separate 10 gallon tanks.
I wanted to breed them, by putting the females in his tank and then removing them when he starts to guard the eggs.

It seemed to work the first time I added a female, with the male subsequently guarding moss for a few days though I saw no eggs or babies.

Now he is much too aggressive to the females, if I put one in I'm forced to remove her because he is so relentless in chasing it. Even if she successfully hides for a time, she still breathes quickly and looks terrified.
I tried putting a female in at night after the lights were out, and the next day it was still being chased to the point of panic, so I think it's not just the shock of simultaneously entering a new tank from a net and suddenly having a male to deal with.

Maybe there is a way to get the females to be more receptive, maybe they need a trigger to want to actually cooperate with him. They're well fed and have had plenty of live blackworms, they look big and round. Maybe a week of feeding them live mosquito larvae might help.

I also have a pair that has been together in their own planted 30 gallon (30" X 18" X 12)tank for a couple of months, and I have the opposite problem.
The male seems to have lost interest in the female. He always stays in his territory, and will chase her out of it if she comes near but is not out to swim around and find her like he has been in the past.
He used to display to her often and at one point there was also another female in there, and he definitely bred with them a few times. It's good that I have a pair which can live together with a moderate level of chasing and biting, but I don't know if it's a bad sign that the male has become less motivated to try and chase the female and breed with her.

On the other hand the male that is alone is so aggressive that I don't know what to do with him. Him and the two females in a 75 gallon is one idea, which I can't give them right now.

Maybe keeping one male alone is going to always make him react strongly when he finally sees a female. I would just keep the pair that is together and get rid of the other three at an lfs, but they might not want such aggressive fish and there probably aren't many people who would be willing to give them space and try and solve the problems with the male's behavior. I might have to find someone who wants them, I haven't given up yet though so maybe it's a matter of conditioning the female.
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Pufferpunk
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Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
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Re: lorteti breeding

Post by Pufferpunk »

Interesting issues you have... I had a dominant female who, after breeding with her mate 3x, killed him. Could never put another male with her, she killed them all.

My guess is that male is not going to be a good breeder (ya think???). I was thinking the same as you--probably a much larger tank with a TON of decor would help. Also, maybe many females to chase around, instead of a single one.
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