Normans Lampeye Gender Ratios

[Flubberlump]

Hello! I bought 6 new lampeye killies today. I already had 4 - 3 of which are female and 1 is male. Of the 6 I bought today there are 4 which are definitely male, 1 female, and 1 which I suspect to be male. This would mean that I have 6 males and 4 females. Is this likely to cause trouble? The male I currently have does occasionally chase the rummynoses away from the 3 girls, he's certainly dominant. I'm worried that this mix will cause trouble

Thanks in advance.

 

[Flubberlump]

I think I may know the answer to this and it's not great. I currently have the new lampeyes in a breeding box floating at the top of the tank. This is because I have an apisto. cacatuoides who made a meal of the last group of lampeyes I bought, as they were juveniles. The adults are too big for him to eat though. I thought I'd grow the new ones on a bit before letting them go, so they're in a breeding box with a moss ball, a new potted alternanthera reineckii that I bought at the same time, and a couple of stems of another new plant I bought floating at the top - not sure what that one is. I thought I'd use them as cover for the new lampeyes before planting them. They seem ok in there and are eating well, I don't think they'll need to be in there for much longer.

I can now see that there are definitely 5 males and 1 female there, bringing the total to 6 males and 4 females once they are released into the main tank. Unfortunately I have seen the males chasing each other about, especially at feeding time. I hope that this settles down a bit once they're in the main tank and have more space, although the only male currently in the tank has a bit of an attitude! I could go back to the LFS and ask for some more females, I have room for more I think, but that may be asking a bit much when they're so little in the shop tanks and are in a mixed sex group!

 

[Flubberlump]

So this morning I released the 2 biggest new males into the tank. The little female in the breeding box was getting chased around by the boys, and I'm sure the 2 I've let out are too big for the apisto now. So I now have 3 males and 3 females in the tank.

One of the females is gravid. When I let the 2 young ones go the original male kept swimming over to check them out. He then rounded up the girls into a huddle and left them with rummy nose shoal. He has continued to go back and forth from chasing the girls into a group, to flaring at the new boys and chasing them away. The new ones haven't shown any interest in joining the group yet, instead they're swimming over to the breeding box and sitting next to it.

I'm hoping that it settles down once everyone knows where they stand. Otherwise I'll have to put the 2 young ones back in the box and try to sweet talk my LFS into fishing out (excuse the pun) some females from their tank for me.

As a side note, I have never seen the females gravid before. I have also never seen the male flare before. They are about 3 1/2 years old now. That started yesterday before I let the others go. They've been getting more frozen food lately so maybe they're in better condition. The only other thing that's changed is that I gave the filter a good clean the other day and the flow is stronger now.

Sorry for the lengthy posts, there's just a lot of descriptions and musings to write!

 

[RCA]

All good to read, I too have found that despite reading LE do not like fast flow, mine love swimming against the flow from the spray bar, even after I put a lilypipe in at the other side of the tank (info in Juwel 180 link in sig) just for them!

Will keep cross referencing with what is happening in my post as well, to see what we can both discover about these amazing, yet under estimated little fish, Lampeye Breeding Behaviour

 

[Flubberlump]

I went back to my LFS and asked for some females, it was no problem at all. I came home with six. Unfortunately there are 4 females and 2 males in there. I can't blame the LFS though. The fish are babies and I think it was a good effort to get 4 out of a tank of such tiny fish! There are now 9 young lampeyes in the tank along with 2 adults. There are 2 left in the breeding box. I can't believe how quickly they grow! The first ones I released are not far off the size of the adult female! So, I now have 7 males and 6 females. I will need to go back to the LFS and get some more females at some point I think, but I'll see how they get on. Things seem to have settled down now between the adult male and the young ones. The previously gravid female doesn't look gravid anymore. I haven't seen any fry but the the rummynoses did spend some time hanging around the moss.

Sadly I lost my apisto earlier this week so the 2 left in the box can be released really. One of them is really tiny though, and I think my tetras would probably have a go at him!