Damon diadema Breeding Question

[Craig]

Hello,

Recently my D. diadema mated. They live togeather in a 40 gallon long aquarium turned vertical, so they have plenty of room. I wasn't trying to breed them but it happened. My question is should I remove the male? The female's eggs are coming along nicely and I am wondering if he will eat the larvae once they hatch.

The two are always togeather and despite the large enclosure they always sit in the same area and usually explore the enclosure togeather.

Thanks in advance. I have bred almost every type of invert you can think of aside from Amblypygi. So I am new to this. Some information on the pair. I have had them for about a year. They both last molted a few months ago.

 

[Veno Manus]

Hello,

Recently my D. diadema mated. They live togeather in a 40 gallon long aquarium turned vertical, so they have plenty of room. I wasn't trying to breed them but it happened. My question is should I remove the male? The female's eggs are coming along nicely and I am wondering if he will eat the larvae once they hatch.

The two are always togeather and despite the large enclosure they always sit in the same area and usually explore the enclosure togeather.


Thanks in advance. I have bred almost every type of invert you can think of aside from Amblypygi. So I am new to this. Some information on the pair. I have had them for about a year. They both last molted a few months ago.

Wouldn't hurt to remove the female actually. Give her, her own vertical nursery until you can separate the young.

 

[Sarkhan42]

Wouldn't hurt to remove the female actually. Give her, her own vertical nursery until you can separate the young.

Completely agree with this (IF SHE HAS NOT LAID EGGS YET). The less nooks and crannies for the babies to get in, the better once you want to seperate- granted you can keep them together for quite a while. That long term cohabitation would be the instance in which I’d just remove the male.

If she has laid eggs, minimizing disturbance is best if possible. I would not rehouse the female at all if she’s on eggs already, but you can probably carefully remove the male.

In any case, I generally recommend separating after courtship. While they can cohabitate long term without issues, occasionally things don’t go well- particularly during molting, though it sounds like that shouldn’t be an issue for you at the moment. Just always a risk involved!

 

[Craig]

Thank you both so much for your response! I think for now I will remove the female. Babies are not on her back yet. I have plenty of extra enclosures so she should be happy. I will keep you updated on the progress.

Thank you for the info on cohabitation also. For whatever reason when I got them I assumed they were or could be communal.

 

[Veno Manus]

Thank you both so much for your response! I think for now I will remove the female. Babies are not on her back yet. I have plenty of extra enclosures so she should be happy. I will keep you updated on the progress.

Thank you for the info on cohabitation also. For whatever reason when I got them I assumed they were or could be communal.

I'd just rather have my female in a safer smaller more simple setup to have easily accessible management to insure good rates. Some people won't even touch them and leave them alone but some of us are just a little more careful. Either way is perfectly fine. Just remember to look at a picture of the size of a baby whip haha.