Empire Gudgeon Spawning

twocents

‪The Empire Gudgeon Show.wmv‬‏ - YouTube

‪The Empire Gudgeon Show.wmv‬‏ - YouTube

The two male Empire Gudgeons usually have territorial displays in the early morning to mid-morning, the dispuations involving a large log ornament. I have always wanted to get a recording of this, but it would be difficult as this display occupies 1/3 of a 56 gallon column tank.

On July 23, 2011, the female is spawning, (at least I think they are spawning) attended to by the larger male. The smaller male would occasionally try a run at the female, only to be roundly rebuffed by the large one. I recorded 8 minutes worth, uploaded it to youtube, and then I recorded an almost 20 minute 1 gig stretch of this. Sadly, too large for youtube. Since it was confined to one small area of the tank, I managed to get some fairly decent footage of them. Plus I have the longer recording for myself.

Simply entitled it as I've always thought of it..

"The Empire Gudgeon Show"

Byron

Beautiful fish. I have never seen them where I live, not that I can recall anyway. I gather spawning in aquaria is quite rare; you should document the achievement. Well done.

Byron.

twocents

Thanks... They may well be spawning, not sure it may be effective. If this is spawning behaviour, and I can't think of anything else they'd be up to, they are very close to the filter intake. There are a lot of other fish in the aquarium, so if the eggs do hatch, they may well not stand much of a chance.
I hope in the future, perhaps, to dedicate a tank to just empire gudgeons. We'll see. They are beautiful fish and can be bought online.