first breeding question

[mschlottfeld]

I just put my male ghost (62g) in my female enclosure (3 females) to see what would happen. He mated with the tang (54g), the bell (58g(that I suspect already has eggs)) bit him back and chased him away then he went after my super snow (51g) and mated with her then went after the tang and mated with her again after which time I stopped him.

Is this normal? This was my and his first breeding attempt.
Did I do the right thing by separating them or should I have let them continue?
This all happened in 20 minutes.

 

[fallen_angel]

Yeah, I think it's pretty normal. We haven't put our male with 3 females at one time, but every time he was introduced to a new female, they copulated almost instantly.

Many people have different opinions on separation, so you will get different answers.

Perhaps you should remove the bell from the tank so she can be alone and lay eggs in another.. I think that removing the male and introducing him over and over is more stressful than keeping him with the females for a week or so. Additionally, if the females give off a "no signal" to the male, and he backs off, then they are generally safe to keep together longer. We keep our males with at least two females at all times, but we are going to remove them and put them into their own tanks after the breeding season is over so that the females get a nice rest period.