Borelli family groups - interesting roles of male and females

[Mol_PMB]

I am a member of a more 'general' fishkeeping forum. One of the other members has been observing and reporting some fascinating behaviour in his tank with one male and 3 female borelli with fry.

Basically, in daytime, each female has a group of fry. But at night the male chases all the females away, and gathers all the fry together in one place, where he guards them. In the morning it's all back to 'normal' with 3 groups of fry with the females. This is ongoing at present and there is a very detailed thread here:

http://www.tropicalfishforums.co.uk/index.php?topic=81281.0

Any thoughts? Is this a known behaviour?

 

[Mike Wise]

Interesting. Like all animals in captivity, fish can behave atypically at times. That being said, I don't know of any studies of A. borellii brood care in the wild, so who knows what they do there.

 

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks Mike.

 

[Mol_PMB]

There is now a video of the behaviour on the original thread if anyone's interested.