I think my warmouth and green sunfish are spawning

My warmnouth in my 55 gallon has been kicking up the gavel in one spot in the tank and then the green sunfish comes over and they turn on their sides flare up their gills and circle around each other. I think they are spawning. Here is a video of a green sunfish building a nest, this is exactly what my warmouth was doing.

Minnowmagnet,

Tail sweeping to construct nest is normally a male only behavior. The behavior where they turn on their sides, do they display their bellies to each other? If so, then that is what I call vent-present behavior which done between high ranking males. They do not have to be of same species in aquariums or nature to display like that. Do you have a third or fourth sunfish in system that you think is a female? When spawning the male and female will slowly swim in a circle on the nest with the female on the inside. Several people have posted videos of sunfish spawning, which nearly same for all sunfishes.

Minnowmagnet,

Tail sweeping to construct nest is normally a male only behavior. The behavior where they turn on their sides, do they display their bellies to each other? If so, then that is what I call vent-present behavior which done between high ranking males. They do not have to be of same species in aquariums or nature to display like that. Do you have a third or fourth sunfish in system that you think is a female? When spawning the male and female will slowly swim in a circle on the nest with the female on the inside. Several people have posted videos of sunfish spawning, which nearly same for all sunfishes.

I have male bluegill and a small female bluegill also. They just turn sideways and swim in circles around each other for a minute then the green sunfish goes back to the other side of the tank.

Edited by minnowmagnet, 22 February 2010 - 01:15 PM.

Any female sunfish can get a male in the nest building mood. How certain are you of the gender of the bluegills? How big is your "male"? Is he digging also?

Any female sunfish can get a male in the nest building mood. How certain are you of the gender of the bluegills? How big is your "male"? Is he digging also?

not positive on the female bluegill, she is only 3-4 inch so it is hard to tell. The male gill is about 6" and is not doing anything out of the ordinary. The warmouth is the only one nest building.

Your video showed two green sunfish. Is the animal that was not digging still present?

Your video showed two green sunfish. Is the animal that was not digging still present?

that is not my video, that is someone elses video that i used as an example. My warmouth is the one digging

I think I understand now. If you have a female green sunfish, she may spawn with the male warmouth. I have done it in ponds and tanks several times. I doubt if the female bluegill will go to a warmouth nest. Even if bluegill female does spawn with warmouth male, survival will be extremely low to even swim up.