Angel metamorphosis

[zygote2k]

I've been trying to create a pair of Lamarcks after hearing Copps speak about them last fall. I've had a female Lamarcks for about a year and in Dec, I was able to get a juvenile. Nothing happened except for the new one carpet surfing in March. I picked up a male around the 1st of May to try again.

I was told that the males have a yellow spot just above the eyes and this new one had the spot. The original female? did not, so I figured that I must now have a pair.

 

At the meeting, I picked up 75 snails and 25 died in the course of a few days. The water got stinky and cloudy for about 3 days and yesterday it finally cleared up. This morning I looked at the fish closely and realized that the female? now has a yellow spot and the male? now has no spot. The females'? pelvic fins changed from white to black and the her? tail is now solid white. The male still has white pelvic fins but his tail is black.

 

Here is the pair- big one is the female? and smaller one is the male?

 

Here's a good picture of the female.

[zygote2k]

I finally figured it out. The original one that I have was a juvenile. The newest one was a male but smaller than the original. The original became male because it is the most dominant and physically larger. The old male will become the female.

Juvenile to male to female.

[davelin315]

Funny how that works out. It's also odd that in some species of marine fish the dominant one becomes the female (damselfish) while in others the dominant becomes the female (majority including angels, anthias, dragonets...). Have you noticed any spawning activity and can you get any better pictures of them interacting?

[zygote2k]

They chase each other constantly and the female does a strange dance around the male when the dusk lights come on. Then they retreat into the cave...

[zygote2k]

The angelfish are doing well together and have elaborate dances consisting of fin flaring and tail wagging. They don't bite each others' eyes any more and appear to be well on the way to actual mating. I'm only making this assumption from watching African Cichlids back in the day.

Here are few pics under the 50w Cannon which shows the true colors of the fish.

[CHUBAKAH]

Stunning fish. Where were you able to find these guys? Do they behave with your corals like there supposed to?

[zygote2k]

Stunning fish. Where were you able to find these guys? Do they behave with your corals like there supposed to?

I picked up the fish from WAMAS members and the big one from F&F about a year ago.

They eat stressed or injured corals- so yes, they behave like they are supposed to.

[dave w]

I picked up the fish from WAMAS members and the big one from F&F about a year ago.

They eat stressed or injured corals- so yes, they behave like they are supposed to.

 

I've never kept these particular angels, but their retreat to a cave at dusk doesn't sound like the typical pygmy mating behavior. More typical is the male chasing the female for the last 45 minutes before the lights go out, and then "soaring" up to the top of the water column together with a cloud of gametes released at the top. Then turn the lights on an hour later and all your shrimp are sitting at the water surface skimming fresh eggs into their bellies.