Just some observations from the mbuna tank.
There seems to be something in the water! Last week my fish seemed to have hit puberty and now I have holding afras, holding acei and my OB zebra is determined not to be left out. There has been a lot of color and activity going on for days now.
My dominant male acei has finally stood up for himself against some of the other tankmates. I'm so proud of him! He went from being the smallest most picked on fish in the tank to being a beautiful dominant male acei. He never leaves his main females side.
My afra male is trying to breed with any moving female but he doesn't get too rough with them. The female I have holding now I thought was a male because of coloring but I hadn't duh "him" out yet. Now she has a mouthful of eggs and will take on the color of a male whenever another female or fish comes near her. It's facinating to see this behavior and goes to show you can't depend on color alone to figure out gender. She isn't quite as bright as my male but she's close. It's awesome!
Now my OB zebra is a dictator. He does not take no for an answer from his females. I have at least 2 mature females. I have a third that I think is really close. All 3 are over 3" long. I also have 5 small juvis that I'm growing out in hopes of getting more females. For now most of the pressure on the male falls on the 2 largest females. They have some tattered fins but seem to be holding their own.
My OB zebras have been facinating to watch because it's easy to tell all the individuals apart. It's also interesting to watch the hierarchy of the females play out. When I recently removed a bossy young male my #3 female decided to take on #2! She didn't win but I think with time she will become more outgoing. The male I removed was quite a bully to her. Also my #2 female is my little tailess wonder. She had her tail removed by tankmates but made a full recovery and is just as spunky as ever.
With all this sudden maturity going on there has been a bit more chasing and a few spats have broken out. I'm holing my breath and hoping it all works out and settles down. This is the same point I reached a while back where I had bad stocking and once the mbuna matured it was an all out war. So far it hasn't been too bad. I just hope I got the stocking right this time.
There seems to be something in the water! Last week my fish seemed to have hit puberty and now I have holding afras, holding acei and my OB zebra is determined not to be left out. There has been a lot of color and activity going on for days now.
My dominant male acei has finally stood up for himself against some of the other tankmates. I'm so proud of him! He went from being the smallest most picked on fish in the tank to being a beautiful dominant male acei. He never leaves his main females side.
My afra male is trying to breed with any moving female but he doesn't get too rough with them. The female I have holding now I thought was a male because of coloring but I hadn't duh "him" out yet. Now she has a mouthful of eggs and will take on the color of a male whenever another female or fish comes near her. It's facinating to see this behavior and goes to show you can't depend on color alone to figure out gender. She isn't quite as bright as my male but she's close. It's awesome!
Now my OB zebra is a dictator. He does not take no for an answer from his females. I have at least 2 mature females. I have a third that I think is really close. All 3 are over 3" long. I also have 5 small juvis that I'm growing out in hopes of getting more females. For now most of the pressure on the male falls on the 2 largest females. They have some tattered fins but seem to be holding their own.
My OB zebras have been facinating to watch because it's easy to tell all the individuals apart. It's also interesting to watch the hierarchy of the females play out. When I recently removed a bossy young male my #3 female decided to take on #2! She didn't win but I think with time she will become more outgoing. The male I removed was quite a bully to her. Also my #2 female is my little tailess wonder. She had her tail removed by tankmates but made a full recovery and is just as spunky as ever.
With all this sudden maturity going on there has been a bit more chasing and a few spats have broken out. I'm holing my breath and hoping it all works out and settles down. This is the same point I reached a while back where I had bad stocking and once the mbuna matured it was an all out war. So far it hasn't been too bad. I just hope I got the stocking right this time.
