Brood Adoption behavior

[tennesseemom]

I have 3 convicts, 2 females and a male. One female is in one tank, the other female and the male in their own tank. The pair has fry that are about a week old. Today I had to do some stuff with their tank, so I took the male out and put him somewhere and put the female in with the other female. I left the fry in there. I got everything moved and running, put the male in, and by accident put in the "single" female, the one who didn't have the fry.

I didn't realize it until about an hour later, and to my surprise, she didn't eat them, she was guarding them with the male and moving them trying to keep them in the one area.

I guess this is normal? As an experiment, I took out some of the fry and put them in with their "first" mother, and she promptly ate them. So is it the tank that caused this "adoptive" behavior? Or the amount of fry that are in the tank that caused this behavior? Do other fish do this too?

 

[Blueiz]

I think it may depend on the fishs personality. Possible pheremones in the water??

 

[Tongue33]

Are you sure you swapped them

 

[tennesseemom]

I am absolutely sure, the "single" convict is 1 inch long and colorful, the mama is over 2 inches and a much darker color.

 

[lilim10]

Whoa..cool, I've never heard of that...maybe she was feeling motherly at the time

 

[wataugachicken]

i have read about these adoption scenarios. what actually seems to happen is that when one female adopts someone else's fry, when she has her own fry she will force the adopted ones to remain on the outer edges of the group. that way if a predator comes along, it is more likely to eat the more accessible adopted fry than the "real" fry in the middle.