do you feel dirty… watching your aquarium captives mating???

[Magnum Man34 148]

I find the fish dancing interesting… but today I watched my dwarf orange crays mating… they actually mount each other… a female must give out pheromones, because I generally see 2 or so per viewing… today all 5 were visible with a pair of males both hanging around one of the females…

 

[gimme301]

I think I've already posted a pic of a pair in the middle of gettin' it on around here somewhere....anyway I don't feel dirty but the first time I saw it I thought for sure he was actively trying to kill her. It was brutal, lasted for hours, and left her half dead.
In fact, sex is what eventually killed her.

 

[GaryE]

Since my hobby is breeding my fish, I do see a lot of fish spawning. It's interesting when it's done differently from other species, but thankfully, not exciting to me until the fry swim. Fish in the tanks, flowers in the garden, deer in the fields, birds in the trees, amoebas on a microscope slide - I don't feel like a peeping tom enjoying all the life going on out there.

I only feel dirty when I clean canister filters or get my arms covered in duckweed.

 

[TwoTankAmin28]

I have always ben fascinated by ow fish reproduce. I got a pair of P. nicholsi just to be able to watch mouth brooding. I have seen bubble nesters mate, cave spawners, and an assortment of other free swimming spawners and egg hiders like corys..I see my assassin snails spawning as well.

The one thing I have always wanted to see in person but never got around to are the splash tetra aka Copella arnoldi.

(edited for 2 typos)

 

[lottabubbles13 35]

back in 1958 my mom bought us kids a 12 gallon aquarium. brought home some Mollys, sward tails and a couple guppies. guess she never heard of live bearers. after seeing all the hedonism going on she was about to throw the entire works out in the back yard. good thing my dad had the final say!

 

[CaptainBarnicles7]

Nature is nature it's awkward because we make it so. Spawning fish are not as obvious as mating gorillas

 

[GaryE]

When I was a kid my best friend's Dad was a Christian preacher, and they had a big tank of guppies in their living room. My friend's little sister once asked me if my guppies were also married. I felt bad because mine weren't, but I couldn't sort out who was with whom, and forgot about it til this thread.

At this point, I've watched the shenanigans of ovophile and larvophile mouthbrooders, switch mouthbrooders, open spawners, cave spawners, peat divers, plant spawners, egg scatterers, hermaphrodite self cloners, livebearers, egg carriers... I've seen females with several males, males with several females, pairs bonded for life, pairs bonded for lunchtime, all possibilities.

I've never kept @CaptainBarnicles pet gorillas (they can't swim) but I have gone to some large aquarium conventions full of creatures who seemed to be courting in random patterns.

I've always liked seeing my fish breed, because I've always liked the results. I like raising baby fish and watching them develop. The ways fish go about making that happen are just part of life's rich pageant.

 

[Magnum Man34 148]

showing my age…. I seem to remember a”sea monkey” advertisement where the “shrimp” were portrayed as naked human looking critters… maybe just the vague memories of an old man…

 

[GaryE]

showing my age…. I seem to remember a”sea monkey” advertisement where the “shrimp” were portrayed as naked human looking critters… maybe just the vague memories of an old man…

Nope. The wife sea monkey had a string of pearls and looked like sixties kodachrome photos of my aunt Kathy if she'd been transformed into a crustacean.

 

[Magnum Man34 148]

 

[GaryE]

Those were extraordinarily twisted ads. When I looked them up, I found other versions with those shrimp tails placed strategically to suggest there's be something other than just an expanse of shrimp behind them. I don't even want to ask who was thinking what about what they'd receive.

The strings of pearls were gone by the image above. A shame that. But that semi-scam ran for a solid 30 years.