fry behavior

[Kathy Olson <kathy@thekrib.com>]

Scot,
Good observations, Wayne Leibel also did a talk on this studying what are
the fry responding to.  It was in his New Orleans ACA talk (98) and he
touched on it again when he talked to our club in (99).  Interesting, he
actually contructed a styrofoam "mom" and then cut away parts to see what
the fry responded too.  It was the black coloration and the movements of
that black coloration, presence and absence of it and another set of
movements that I don't recall.

That is why I always hate to remove mom from fry if at all possible.  I
think they then spend too much time in "duck and cover" instead of
feeding.  Just had to do this with 2-3 day old steindachneri fry...we will
see how they do. Usually I don't remove mom.

Kathy


On Thu, 3 Feb 2000, Scot Gillespie wrote:

> Ramblings.. No John. Observations of behaviours are about as important as
> anything else in the hobby, or academia. And as relevant to the genetic
> make-up of the fish as anything, be the behaviours truly genetically
> acquired or the ability for them to be learned. Whither they are used at the
> moment to assist in describing a species or not at the moment is probably a
> side issue (I'd put money on it that in time it will come - well for
> sub-species anyway).
> 
> Akin to the body colour changes, I've also noted that body posture and fin
> angles also play their part in the fry movement responses during the first
> week or so, particularly with the "fry hit the dust now" danger signal. With
> body colour change only; the fry move slowly to the bottom of the tank, If
> accompanied with a static body and fully erect fins; they go down like they
> were vacuumed to the bottom.
> 
> With the "come to me gesture" I've noticed the brightening of colours, when
> there is little presumed threat, and this seams to be used just to move the
> fry to another desired location. If this is accompanied by a circling
> twitching motion with erect fins the fry show more urgency in moving close,
> and generally the adults tend to presume more of a threat when this movement
> is employed.
> 
> The "don't follow me I'm off to deal with the threat" signalling I'm not so
> sure of though, I've scene this happen with the parent still in the
> colouration from the "fry hit the dust now" stage, though the initial
> departure angle of the fish is practically always upwards, rather than
> downwards or at the same level, even if after a couple of inches the fish
> readjusts to go down to the bottom of the tank.
> 
> Who knows, maybe they have a three word baby-language; to-me, hit-floor, and
> NOW!..;-) 
> 
> Scot
> 
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