Something That I Had Not Seen Prior.

[Pat Kelly]

Something that was a little different for me last night.

I was checking my Copadichromis trewavasae group last night and it looked like 3 of the females were
holding. I watched them for about 5 minutes and they were swimming around with the mouths full.
I have never had the male breed with more than one at a time so I was watching for a while.
I decided to feed the rest of the fish in there and when the food hit the water, all three females spit out one large piece of gravel and went for the food. Now I have seen fish pick up gravel to get food off of it but these were swimming around with the one piece for a long period of time. This evening one of them is actually holding eggs. Just seems strange to me. Could they have been showing off to the male?
"Hey there big boy. :jumpy: Look at how many eggs I can hold. :jumpy: " "Pick me"

 

[phishphorphun]

Sounds like a "dress rehersal" to me.

 

[myselfdotcom]

my labs and saulosi keep picking up sands and relocating them somewhere else...LOL...are u gravel or sand?

 

[Pat Kelly]

It is gravel.
But it was not just moving. I get that all the time with the males. The girls were holding the stones not just moving them.....???
Sounded like the girls were working it to me. Maybe I should put in a street corner and some red lights?

 

[daniel]

Wow, that's pretty crazy. I've never seen any fish keep gravel or sand in their mouths for any extended period of time. The only Copadichromis I have had before was chrysonatus, and the female only held eggs once or twice. It was difficult to tell when she was holding because there much less downward extension of the buccal cavity than with most other Malawi cichlids, or mouthbrooders period I guess. I'd be interested to know if they do it again and if it again coincides with a spawning...

 

[Pat Kelly]

Yeah,
I need to keep a closer eye on them for a while to see if I can duplicate it.

 

[Steve]

Pat,

Is it possible that you have some rather, um, "slow" females that were picking up gravel instead of eggs? (You did say that one is holding for real, so it seems like there was some genuine action going on.)
Oh, and that glass you were drinking from while you were watching the fish . . . care to share with the class exactly what was in it?

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Pat Kelly]

Na
They mated the next day. No one was really holding that day.

 

[toddnbecka]

Cyp's and Paracyp's are known to "hold" air bubbles occaisonally, never heard of Malawian's doing it though.

 

[mscichlid]

Maybe they are pretending so they don't have to be bothered. LOL!

That behavoir sounds so fascinating. Keep us posted on how it's going.