RE: unusual behaviour

[Scot Gillespie <Scot.Gillespie@epsedin.co.uk>]

Hi, John.
I'm in about two minds just now over pulling the fry, which is not my usual
course of action. As you pointed out the wild card is how strong the
imprinting is from the nanny's side. With domesticated animals this sort of
thing is not that uncommon - getting chickens to hatch duck eggs etc., but I
did not expect to see it in apistos and not where it is so unmanaged. Mind
you the world is full of tales of discus herding daphnia.

If anyone is the wiser (Helen) one factor I'd like to resolve, is at what
stage of development the eggs/fry were in the time frame from Saturday 19:00
when the pikes came out given that yesterday (Monday) pre 18:00 the nanny
was herding the fry (temp 80F, pH 6.8, total hardness 4ppm).

A few factors I've dismissed at present:
Male nijsenni sperm could not be present, male was in the same tank but that
was over eight weeks ago.
The fry are herding with nanny, thus they are not cory, cardinal and
definitely not molly.
They are not keyhole, as the territory which the nanny had claimed prior to
seeing her with the fry was a bogwood 'cave' area, and as such not a keyhole
spawning type area. Also the keyholes have never shown any sign of being
gravid or spawning.
They are not hybrid, prior to their removal the pikes did not 'associate'
with the nijsenni.

I would take development photos, but I can see Denise's face when I tell her
I want a 200mm macro lens along with the sixteen tanks I've just cudgelled
out of her.




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