RE: Borelli male rearing young and other interesting behaviour stuff (long)

["Yvan Alleau" <yalleau@coas.oregonstate.edu>]

Same here,
A. borelli males seem to be real good dads. The pairs I've breed seem also
to be more harmonious than any other apisto species. They did not compete
for fry care but rather worked together very closely. Always nice to see it
going that way! 

Yvan Alleau
Oregon State University
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences/
Hatfield Marine Science Center
2030 SE Marine Science Drive
Newport, OR 97365
1-541-867-0206
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-apisto@v2.listbox.com [mailto:owner-apisto@v2.listbox.com] On
Behalf Of Per Wigstal
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 7:32 AM
To: apisto@v2.listbox.com
Subject: Re: Borelli male rearing young and other interesting behaviour
stuff (long)

Hi
 
Thanks for sharing that interesting story! I have the same experince with
some other apisto species also. That the males sometimes care for the fry.
But the Borellii-males seem to be the ones that are most eager to
participate in the care for the offspring.
 
Best regards/ Per
Nuno Prazeres <nprazeres@vodafone.pt> wrote:
I would just like to share the experience I had with a borellii couple.

I have a 100 gal tank (with added 20 gal capacity from the sump) with sand,
pieces of wood and aquatic plants. There are only 4 otos, an A. agassizii
trio and an A. borellii couple in the tank. 

I started the system in January but, anyway, want to keep the stock quite
low. If one is into fish beaviour it pays a lot!

The territorial fights between the aga females are excelent to watch. Their
eyes show a shining blue iris when they fight or display and I already
presenced a some frontal open mouth threatening displays and even a
mouth-lock fight (only a couple of seconds but it was something I never
heard about in females). The male tends to interfere when agresssion becomes
higher and then punishes the females which is also quite interesting.

A month ago I was forced to introduce a borellii couple there for lack of
space. I had a very recently purshased borellii trio in a 4 gal quarentine
tank but the bigger female spawned (after just 9 days) and I had to move the
other two.

A week later the other female was ripe and soon disapeered among the plants.
The male apparently didnt care. He was too busy runnig away from the agas.
After about 8/10 days he became more agressive and established a tiny
territory near the place where I suspected the female was. He started to
attack even the aga male who is much bigger and always dominated him.

Last saturday I notice the male was taking care of around 10 young alone!
The female is taking care of a big bunch but tends to stay somehow far from
the male's territory (the same corner of the tank but at least 10 to 20 cms
away). The female is still using the plants for coverage but the male stays
in the limits of the planted zone.

The male does the mother stuff quite well using his mouth to keep the fry
together. The fin, colour or other signs he uses seem to be well
interpretated by the young. They duck promptly when the aga male approaches
and their father displays agression coloration. Speaking of colour, I
thought the male could become a bit yellowish but it didnt happen at all. He
is still quite blue violet so I would say that, giving the colour diversity
borellii males can show, fry do not depend on the general colouration to
identify a fish as a protecting parent.

Unfortunatly I was not lucky enough to watch the moment when the borellii
male started to take care of the young. Was it a kiddnaping act? Was it a
"mutual decision"? Anyone risks a foundated guess???

Anyway, giving the potential threat from the aga trio I would say that this
strategy does maximize the chances of survival of some young specially if
male and female stay near enough and keep some eye contact and share
treathning and attacking manouvers.

An obvious conclusion: Great stuff having small apistos in big tanks!

I forgot to say:
temp 25-26 C, pH 6.7, Conductivity 70mS, 15% water changes weekly, 10 ppm
CO2, 12 hours light, NO3 = 0; I do not use biological filters and rely just
on the plants to keep the water ok (the sump has a lot of plants and has
lights that are on in conter cycle to the aquarium to keep CO2 level stable
- there are always plants convering CO2 into O2).
I feed only live food 3 times a day, mainly artemia naupillii, grindal worms
and more ocasionally (because its winter here and the culture is dormant)
daphnia and black mosquito larvae.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-- This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@listbox.com. For
instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help, email
apisto-request@listbox.com. apisto-digest@listbox.com also available.
Web archives at http://lists.thekrib.com/apisto Trading at
http://blox.dropship.org/mailman/listinfo/apisto_trader
		
---------------------------------
  Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today!
Download Messenger Now

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-- This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@listbox.com. For
instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help, email
apisto-request@listbox.com. apisto-digest@listbox.com also available.
Web archives at http://lists.thekrib.com/apisto Trading at
http://blox.dropship.org/mailman/listinfo/apisto_trader


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-- This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@listbox.com. For
instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help, email
apisto-request@listbox.com. apisto-digest@listbox.com also available.
Web archives at http://lists.thekrib.com/apisto Trading at
http://blox.dropship.org/mailman/listinfo/apisto_trader