What the? Double clown spawn?

[mrblue]

I was just checking on one of my pairs (a.melanopus, my red pair) and got a rather strange surprise, they have two spawns going at the same time. This pair's normal spawn was only a couple of days off hatching and to my surprise today they layed (a larger) spawn an inch or so from their original spawn, strange. I tryed to take a pic of this but without cleaning the side glass a few inches from their spawn I haven't had much luck. They spawn upside down in a cave and it's one pair I haven't been able to get shots of.
Just thought you guys would be interested, has anyone else ever had this happen?

[Julio]

interesting. Have they bread in the past? i have heard of this before in books that i read is sometimes due to a very healthy diet, keep up the good work.

[JHardman]

I have a pair of A. perucla that do that all the time. If I do not get their nest out the day of hatching, there is a new one there before the days over.

Not all the unheard of...

[Atticus]

What temp is your tank and how long is the spawn to hatch time?

[David M]

So does the male tend both nests? Or does he abandon the first one and attend the newer one? Just curious. My friend with the pink skunks told me of a double nest like that only a week ago, I will follow up to see what happened.

[mrblue]

Thanks for your responses, I suppose I should have looked into it a bit better, bit excited I suppose ;). This is about their 5th spawn I know of, so I think they are a still working things out but they are due to hatch tonite (the new one was laid yesterday) and the tank temp is running at 80F.

[mrblue]

Sorry David, we posted at the same time. The male seems to be tending the older batch more vigorously, but he does go back and forth a bit. The female is in there helping out a bit as well :). A pink skunk double nest must be great, those guys are generally a bit irregular aren't they?

[JHardman]

Originally posted by David M
So does the male tend both nests? Or does he abandon the first one and attend the newer one? Just curious. My friend with the pink skunks told me of a double nest like that only a week ago, I will follow up to see what happened.

I actually have three pairs that do this, one that is like a clock and two that are irregular doing the overlapping nests.

The GSM pair the female is the primary nest tender start to finish. It is something to watch her fan eggs, spawn, fan, the go back and forth between the new nest and old nest.

The Onyx pair, the female tends the new nest and chases the male to the old nest when he tries to come over the new nest. As soon as the old nest is hatched, he is left to tend it alone.

The A. percula pair that will overlap from time to time... Both are tending all the way thru.

Temps on the Onyx... 9 days at ~79F
All others 6-7days at 83.3F

[Luis A M]

I have never seen that with clowns but it was normal with Pomacentrus damsels.I pulled the nest,had it hatched,and returned it to the parent to take care of the younger nest

[mrblue]

Jhardman it's interesting you say your GSM female is the primary nest tender, my GBM female appears (they also spawn in a cave upside down) to also be the primary nest tender, the male seems to do very little. Maybe the little maroon males just aren't big anough to tend such big spawns.
Luis A M, I suppose I am lucky(or unlucky) that I can't pull this nest so I'll just hatch one and then the next, kind curious to see what happens with the next cycle.

[Atticus]

To add to the knowledge pool. My GSM female will also help tend large spawns. SHe is not there as much as the male, but she is constantly checking back with him and giving the eggs a few good waves.

[mrblue]

Interesting, maybe there is a bit of a sexual revolution happening in the clown world with the maroons:D, the females are putting in a bit more effort then just eating and spawning;).

[rsman]

i had a pair of saddlebacks that wud do this, and i have a pair of clarkii that do it too...

it seemed to me that the saddlebacks would ignore the oldest batches ... but most of the time I pull eggs early,i dont trust the parents

[mrblue]

Cool, thanks, and thanks to everyone for their input. It seems this is far from uncommon.

[JHardman]

Originally posted by Atticus
To add to the knowledge pool. My GSM female will also help tend large spawns. SHe is not there as much as the male, but she is constantly checking back with him and giving the eggs a few good waves.

I got this pair of GSM as spawning... the male was tiny! As he has grown, he has taken on more of the tending duties. Their first spawns with me, he was got as soon as his job was done. But now that he has about doubled in size, he is allowed to fan if she wants to curse the tank or abuse a snail or bristle worm.