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Making love or war? (more kubotai's clips)
Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 2:36 pm
by andre
Instigated by today's beautiful clip of fighting kubotai's I will add two more clips (apologies for the bad quality and lack of music).
At some stage I wondered whether they were spawning. So I sent the clips to the mother of all the loaches (Emma) but unfortunately it appears to be an alpha position issue.
Whether they fight or not these loaches always make the fish tank very entertaining.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0fqoLfd7mU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lLasSVPZU3o
Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 4:13 pm
by Graeme Robson
First instincts to me suggest a dominance dance with both wanting the alpha position. How many do you keep?
Nice videos!
Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 5:06 pm
by andre
Thanks Graeme. Your opinion matches exactly with Emma's. I have 4 young individuals about 8cm long.
I cannot determine their gender as they all seem identical in size. The "dance" lasted about 40 minutes and for most of the time took place in a cavity of the bogwood. It ended when the clowns entered the cave and chased them away.
The most striking feature was how the colour had dramatically changed. The top side was uniformly dark and the bottom white. The usual pattern became almost invisible.
Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 5:41 pm
by Graeme Robson
Shadowing occurs alot within many fish species, some for breeding and some for dominance. Given the size, i would just accept juvenile banter for the time being. Keep us updated if more develops.
Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 6:42 pm
by Whitey_MacLeod
Nice videos
The bit of your tank I could see looks good too
Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 6:45 pm
by Emma Turner
Andre has a beautiful tank and superbly conditioned fish and should share photos more often! (
hint hint).
Emma
Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 11:28 pm
by bslindgren
This fits with my experience. They do this after feeding in particular, so I am convinced they are determining the hierarchy in the school.
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 3:42 am
by andre
Thanks everybody for your input. This is a learning curve for me as I only had loaches for about two years (and now probably forever....).
No much literature is available on the behaviour of these species and the contribution of this forum is really of a great value.
Should anything weird happen in my thank I'll keep you posted.
Just a question, do you LOL members ever go to sleep?
Regards/Andre
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 3:53 am
by Blue
andre wrote:Just a question, do you LOL members ever go to sleep?
Of course, we do.
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 4:41 pm
by andre
I think that I found what triggers the "dance". It appears to be the water change.
Last week the "clean water" was too warm and I waited to refill the tank. I did the same today and after some time the dance started again.
I don't turn off the filters so there is an increased turbolence in the water.
This time however was shortlived as the tiger barbs started to spawn and the kubs were too busy collecting their eggs.