So it’s been a busy few weeks.  I mentioned back on June 25th that I thought I had found success pairing up the White Stripe Maroons, but it was preliminary and I didn’t want to get hopes up. A trip to the Florida Keys prevented me from sharing this first update, which is video I shot on July 15th of the “spare” PNG White Stripe Maroons, initially sent as two same-sized males, now fully paired and happy

So the jist of how this was pulled off was to separate them, feeding the selected female 3 times per day, the male once per day, with the male in a net breeder / basket type setup. This forced a size differential to develop. I found that if I took the male out and placed him in the tank, he was normally beaten pretty quickly. While I did try the use of dither fish (culled small juvenile perculas), it did not seem that was what actually did the trick. It seemed that it took 2-3 days of isolating the “female” in the net, and letting the selected male have free reign, that tempered the female’s aggression and helped seal the deal.
The short result of that analysis? Well, there is a size differential in the Lightning and her male. And I have one other pair of Maroons that remains unpaired. What did I do next? You’ll have to wait for the next post.