The sexing of the fish is more of a guess. with damsels being in the same family as clownfish I assumed the larger of the pair was female, and it is the larger one than defends the nest site with true damsel aggression. when I get back from vacation I will isolate a male and female so see which is one is the actual female. If the larger one is the female I could only guess that she is deffending her clutch and partner, and the male may stay in the "cave" tending to the eggs.
I sat back and watched the damsels for a while. The larger one still defends the nest site. this clutch has about 1,000 eggs. Only one of the females is near the eggs the other female along with four males are kept on the other side of the tank. three males are allowed near the nest but not under the rock. I took a video with my phone showing the female defending the nest site. After I took the video I lifted up the rock and they're were no males under it, just the female.
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I will watch more to see if any males are allowed under the rock with the eggs.
The damsels laid eggs on the side of the tank instead of under the rock. hmmm. still see no males tending to eggs. only the one female gets close to them but does nothing to them.
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Hi my name is Larry and I'm a coral addict!
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