[carlso63]

11/28/2007 - Day 19

If you take a look back to the last picture in the last post you may notice that the male Banggai's dorsal thread appears to be longer than it was previously... I noticed that, too - it had grown maybe a half-inch or more since the spawning. At first I was puzzled about why this would happen; but, later on, I think I figured it out. My theory is this:

When the adult fish are not spawning or carrying eggs they are just like every other fish in the tank. Darting arond the tank, chasing after food, sometimes chasing each other. I think what happens with the males - and the reason these fish are so hard to sex most of the time - is that during the normal feeding behavior other fish may be nipping off this dorsal thread while they are chasing down food. Maybe it even looks like "food" to them; wiggling around above the fish. Once the spawning occurs, however, the male loses interest in eating and becomes alot more reclusive in general. Since it no longer participates in the local "feeding frenzy" at mealtimes, his dorsal thread no longer gets nipped off by other fish, and thus starts to grow longer and longer like it would be in nature.

Now when I look at the pair the difference in the length of that dorsal thread - once basically identical in length - is now obvious.

Other than that revelation, today was a quiet day. Nothing changed re: the male carrying; still not eating, at home in the nursery, female by his side in the display... some of the literature I read said the hatching could have come as early as 17 - 18 days, so now I know we are getting close...