What I've noticed so far which is quite interesting is as follows:
Previous spawns have often turned unsuccessful on account of there being too many predators, or generally too many fish in close proximity (community setting). What I will normally witness is the pair tending to their one group of fry, taking it in turns to "rotate" their position so that the other may feed, defend the outer perimeter of their area etc.
In fact, we probably all see this behaviour, but what I've seen this time - in a setting where the only predators are 3 white-tip tetra's, is something wholly different. Maybe some of you have witnessed it, if you have, I'd love to know.
In continuation - what normally happens in a community setting is that the pair will work together, very well, in defending their fry. However in such a setting they were often overwhelmed with the constant and spread attacks on their young. Now I've always hypothesised that the male is in fact highly intelligent, so much so that you can tell he actually gets frustrated with the female - he noticeably punishes her if she neglects to guard a spot, or if they lose a large amount of fry. At first I thought this was his hyper-territorial attitude driving such behaviour, but now, in a more relaxed setting, I have been able to establish that it is more than that.
He separated the fry at an early stage - the female had watch over the entire group and the male actively chased her away, took about 1/3 of the fry and then continued to ensure that the female did not take them back to the main group - he has been watching that group since day one, the female holding the majority. Don't get the wrong idea, they haven't broken the bond, quite the opposite, this seems to be a tactic. As the female lost a few on the first eve of their freeswimming, I noticed that her group had suddenly become considerably smaller the next day. Upon discovering this, I noticed that the male was surrounded by a mass of wigglers, easily half the group, which he still will not let the female near.
She has lost all of her fry, but he still has all of the fry he took, kept at the furthest possible point away from the white tip tetra's in a mass of driftwood where the female is not allowed near the group. My suspicions were correct - he is a superior parent (sigh, not getting into the m vs f thing here) and she, although very pretty, isn't the brightest fish, certainly not by comparison. I think a lot of his hostility towards her after a failed spawn is due to this.... before I was unsure whether it was him rejecting her and then his hyper-territorial nature taking over. But having seen the "tactic" he has used here I can only believe that he feels irritated at the females poorer parenting capability and really does seem to punish her for a failure.
I thought it fascinating that he seemed to posses the foresight from previous experience, to then separate the group in a seemingly intelligent way and to defend them himself. If he should fail then I imagine he will become quite stressed upon the realisation that he, alone, is no better than the female.
Pictures are impossible, they truly are in the tangle of driftwood where my flash won't penetrate, this is the closest I could get to the fry coming out and the male quickly whizzing into shot to flare at me, collect the escapees and return them to "fort driftwood knox".
You can tell he's feeling the strain:
I will endeavour to get better pics of the actual group of fry, but it may take a while before they come out, I need to remove the tetra's first.
Blair.
Previous spawns have often turned unsuccessful on account of there being too many predators, or generally too many fish in close proximity (community setting). What I will normally witness is the pair tending to their one group of fry, taking it in turns to "rotate" their position so that the other may feed, defend the outer perimeter of their area etc.
In fact, we probably all see this behaviour, but what I've seen this time - in a setting where the only predators are 3 white-tip tetra's, is something wholly different. Maybe some of you have witnessed it, if you have, I'd love to know.
In continuation - what normally happens in a community setting is that the pair will work together, very well, in defending their fry. However in such a setting they were often overwhelmed with the constant and spread attacks on their young. Now I've always hypothesised that the male is in fact highly intelligent, so much so that you can tell he actually gets frustrated with the female - he noticeably punishes her if she neglects to guard a spot, or if they lose a large amount of fry. At first I thought this was his hyper-territorial attitude driving such behaviour, but now, in a more relaxed setting, I have been able to establish that it is more than that.
He separated the fry at an early stage - the female had watch over the entire group and the male actively chased her away, took about 1/3 of the fry and then continued to ensure that the female did not take them back to the main group - he has been watching that group since day one, the female holding the majority. Don't get the wrong idea, they haven't broken the bond, quite the opposite, this seems to be a tactic. As the female lost a few on the first eve of their freeswimming, I noticed that her group had suddenly become considerably smaller the next day. Upon discovering this, I noticed that the male was surrounded by a mass of wigglers, easily half the group, which he still will not let the female near.
She has lost all of her fry, but he still has all of the fry he took, kept at the furthest possible point away from the white tip tetra's in a mass of driftwood where the female is not allowed near the group. My suspicions were correct - he is a superior parent (sigh, not getting into the m vs f thing here) and she, although very pretty, isn't the brightest fish, certainly not by comparison. I think a lot of his hostility towards her after a failed spawn is due to this.... before I was unsure whether it was him rejecting her and then his hyper-territorial nature taking over. But having seen the "tactic" he has used here I can only believe that he feels irritated at the females poorer parenting capability and really does seem to punish her for a failure.
I thought it fascinating that he seemed to posses the foresight from previous experience, to then separate the group in a seemingly intelligent way and to defend them himself. If he should fail then I imagine he will become quite stressed upon the realisation that he, alone, is no better than the female.
Pictures are impossible, they truly are in the tangle of driftwood where my flash won't penetrate, this is the closest I could get to the fry coming out and the male quickly whizzing into shot to flare at me, collect the escapees and return them to "fort driftwood knox".
You can tell he's feeling the strain:
I will endeavour to get better pics of the actual group of fry, but it may take a while before they come out, I need to remove the tetra's first.
Blair.
