When a Borellii acts like a Flounder

["ALEX PASTOR" <alexp@idirect.com>]

Recently, after being introduced to a rather tiny female, my male Borellii
has altered his 'courting' behaviour.  With his other partner, who is a
larger specimen, he does all the typical pre-mating moves: fin flashes and
tail flaps to show how big and powerful he is;  just like in the books.
Sort of like "look at me!  I'm big, I'm powerful, baby!  Do it with me."

But with wife #2 he slowly lies down on his side in front of her as if to
play dead.  When she does not show any interest and swims away, he follows
her.  Then he gets in front of her and lies down again.  I thought that
maybe he is developing an alternate 'courting' posture to let the much, much
smaller female know that he is not a danger to her.  Well, she's not
impressed one way or the other, until wife #1 starts to lay eggs.  Then she
tries to usurp the spawning site, with of course, no success.  It seems wife
#2 only thinks he is good for anything when he is out proving himself to
wife #1.

Anyone else out there watch "Discovery Channel Live" and seen anything like
this?  Any thoughts about this strange (at least to me) behaviour?

G. Kadar
watching fish instead of re-runs



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