Male Barlowi- thief :-)

[Ruki]

Few days ago my male barlowi stolen some of fry from female. He didn't want to give them back and was swimming with them in his mouth. :biggrin:
After around 30 minutes he gave them back. :wink:

P.S.
Yes, I have to many algae everywhere. I wanted to make with tank but now I have fry.

 

[Tom C]

I witnessed the same phenomena with one of my A. barlowi pairs. At the end of the mouthbrooding period, the male was allowed to mouthbrood too.
The female didn't seem to bother about it; while he had the fry, she took the opportunity to eat, and she didn't try, as far as I could see, to get the fry back before he gave them back.

P.S. Your tank with algae looks just like my tanks, most of the time. The important thing is how the fish are, not what the tank looks like.......:biggrin:

 

[Ruki]

All spawns before were protected only by female. Male was ignored by female and fry were ignored by male. In this case he took fry only once(probably, I were out for 4 days).
In your case Tom it was "larave period", in my it was "free swimming fry period". Because of this I was shocked. I saw few times at night that female take fry in two-three first days to her mouth at nighttime.


Algae are due of my 2 months long illness(problems with kidneys) and having no power to do anything with tanks. Now I'm repairing all tanks(I'm in half of way now). :biggrin:
Second photo was taken from front. :biggrin:

 

[MonteSS]

Very nice fish and interesting behavior.

Althoough we dont like the algae, I think the fish preder it and feel more at home.

Hope you are feeling better.

....Bill

 

[Mike Wise]

I have a male A. bitaeniata (Rio Tigre) that steals fry from the female. She gets mad and tries to take them back, but he is 4X her size. Interestingly, I don't seem to lose any fry when the male guards them. I pulled out 65 juvenlies from the last brood.

 

[jose_vogel]

My A. sp. "rotpunkt" male and one of the A. baenschi males did the same. Both are wildcaught.