Scooter Blenny Pair Bonding or Aggression?

[mloebl]

I know a few people on the forum have had mating pairs of Scooter Blenney, so could use some feedback. I picked up a male, and presumably a female scooter blenny back in November from two seperate stores. Male has a noticeably large dorsal fin, the suspect female is about 1/2" smaller and fin is considerably smaller (barely 1/4 the size of the larger one.) Not sure if it's just a juve or a female.

I've never seen them attack one another except for an occasional chase or larger one ghosting the smaller one around the tank, but no observed nipping. I noticed tonight after the lights shut off that the two were sitting on a rock togther, the dorsal fins were closed, but they were next to each other curled towards each other with both mouths together. Prior to this I've never seen them this close. Their colors seemed noticeably brighter as well while this was going on. I watched for a minute until the female clown came over and decided to get involved and they seperated. They came back together again, but this time after several seconds it looked like the smaller one shot quickly at the male (maybe a nip?), and then swam off and resumed pod feeding.

The mouthing touching which almost looked like kissing seemed like it could be an aggressive display?, but the fins on both were closed and other than the last manuever, it seemed pretty docile.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

-Mike

 

[Cardiak]

If you post pictures of your male/female we can tell you if they really are a male female pair and of the same scooter species. If they are then your probably fine, sometimes the male gets pissed when the female doesnt want to mate

 

[JohnK]

Sounds very interesting. I remember seeing fin flashing but no close contact when I had scooters yrs ago.

Maybe you should just put on romantic music and give them some privacy

 

[mloebl]

Thanks for the responses. I tried to get the best pics I could, but the autofocus doesn't work too well when the blenney matches the liverock and I did my best doing it manual focus while they were swimming. First pic is what I believe is a male, second is the unknown. I'm finally starting to get some weight slowly back into them as they are starting to take prepared foods. They were pretty emaciated when I got them from the pet shops.

-Mike

 

[Cardiak]

The first one is definatly a male, the second I cant really tell since I cant make out its first dorsal fin in that picture.

Basically if its first dorsal fin reaches the second run of fins that run down its back that usualy means its a male. The female should have a tiny fin. Attached is a back shot of my scooters, its an old picture and not in great focus. The female is on the left and the male on the right.

 

[Cardiak]

After looking at your second photo again I can now see its fin and its definatly a male scooter.

 

[mloebl]

After looking at your second photo again I can now see its fin and its definatly a male scooter.

Thanks for the info, I think you are right. Top fin does touch the front of the center dorsal fin. I'll see if I can fish him out soon rather than having two males stress each other out. I've got another 10g tank inline in the basement for my wife's percs, so can place it in there until I find a new home. Irony is my wife scared him out last weekend while cleaning the sides of the tank; she had a neighbor come over and put it back in the tank. If I had only known

-Mike