# Question about breeding behaviors in Red Jewels



## GreenMikey (May 28, 2010)

First time posting for me and it's 2:15am, so please forgive me if this is in another topic. I'm just not functioning at 100% right.
I have several red jewels but the ones in question are in a 75 gallon tank. I've had them for about 6 months. There are three in there and two decided to pair up. They've just spawned and I'm kind of new to this so it's been a learning experience.

The mama jewel is about 2.5 inches and the papa is about 3.5 inches and they've colored themselves the same (both showing a soft pink body and faded red fins) where as the third jewel in the tank has gone dark red and grey and its spots are much more irredecent/blue...he stays on the opposite side of the tank from the mating pair. The mama and papa take turns watching the fry with the papa being a giant wuss and running away when he sees me. The little mama will hang out when I walk up and make sure the babes are safe.

Anyway, I've noticed that sometimes the mom or dad will "pulse" their fins in short bursts while watching the fry. Anyone know what that's about? I've delt more with mouth brooders and I'm totally baffled as to what the parents are accomplishing with this fin pulsing. There are currently about 80 little ones in a cloud around the gravel hanging out with mom (or dad at times) and both mom and dad display this pulsing from time to time. Just curious...thanks


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## bernie comeau (Feb 19, 2007)

GreenMikey said:


> Anyway, I've noticed that sometimes the mom or dad will "pulse" their fins in short bursts while watching the fry. Anyone know what that's about?


Sometimes parents will try to stir up debris from the bottom, for the fry to feed off of.

Parents also give signals to the brood of fry in order to control the group. But with out actually seeing it, and the reaction of the fry, it's diificult to say what the parents are trying to 'communicate' to their offspring.


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