Re: unusual behavior

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

I have several photos of 2 A. sp. Rotpunkt (Blue-cheek). Both are in female brood
dress and both sharing guard duty on a batch of fry. At first I thought it was 2
females sharing guard duty, but I had never seen or heard of this (2 females
jointly rearing a brood). Females are usually very territorial toward other
females. One of them however is actually a "sneaker male". The only difference is
a slightly paler yellow on the male. Before I discovered this I thought that it
was strange that the dominant female (not part of this pair) would successfully
raise her broods in this tank while the pair could not. Then I discovered the
male of the pair leading off fry and then leaving them to fend for themselves
(which didn't last long). When not in brood dress the sneaker male was quite
obvious by the lack of black in the ventrals and more blue in the flanks. When it
comes to breeding apistos, nothing surprises me anymore.

Mike Wise

Frauley/Elson wrote:

> Thomas Wilkinson wrote:
> >
> > I have noted a behavior in my elongate Apisto "Piacoa" species that I
> > have not seen before.  In a 10 gal.tank I have two females with free
> > swimming fry and several males.  One of the males now has taken on
> > female brood markings.  Except that he remains brown-gray he now
> > sports a single central side spot like the brooding females.  He also
> > lacks the black ventral fins.  He is herding around a swarm of fry
> > with one of the females and she is tolerating him.  I have never seen
> > this type of behavior before.
> > Tom
> > '
> Tom,
> That's really neat. I've been paying more attention to how male apistos
> behave with fry. I always vaguely noticed it while watching females, but
> for some reason, I started focussing on the males much more, and the
> wide range of behavior is entertaining. I've never seen it go as far as
> your sp. "piacoa".
> What group would you guess these guys to be from?
> -Gary
>
> BTW I have a young pair of mendezi. It's an extremely pretty little
> fish, much more than the photos had made me expect. The male has a red
> head, much like a Nigerian red P. taeniatus in colour.
>
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