Someone is getting fat....

[Ashleigh]

So I go away for a few days over which all fish were fasted and I come home to chubby here I thought the idea of fasting was not to put on weight but to use what reserves you have..... apparently you use reserves for things other than general day to day activity.







There has also what appears to be quite a bit of scrapping going on while I was away-some of the B.striata have quite a few cuts and scrapes especially around the top of the head area, below is the only individual I managed to get a snap of. I spend the good part of an hr watching them last night, it only seems to be with 3/4 main individuals-only two will line up at anytime, swim around in very fast circles and nipping before charging off. I have never witnessed my B.striata act in this way and I was quite surprised that they could be so nippy for something I assumed to be mild
All have chilled out by this morning doing their usual begging act, has anyone else seen B.striata act like this?




Ashleigh

[mack]

Hi,
Could it be that she has some eggs. And might be ready to bread. Consequently making the males scrape for her?
mack

[Bully]

Great pics

I've noticed my B. striata get a little scrappy when around the gravid female. They like to stick close to her, and quite often she will barge them away using her weight (and status I suppose). I've not seen them cause any injury yet, but your female is a lot more gravid than mine so maybe there's a lot of hormone floating about....let's hope so

[Ashleigh]

Hi,
Could it be that she has some eggs. And might be ready to bread. Consequently making the males scrape for her?
mack

Yup she is gravid

Great pics

Thank you

I've noticed my B. striata get a little scrappy when around the gravid female

This Mrs was sticking by herself last night, and she is staying well hidden this morning, Chris thinks I offended her by calling her chubby Those that are scrapping are not scrapping with her-they don't even seem to notice her. It appears to be the alpha female, who is now starting to show signs of her belly filling aswell and two either very slim females or two males.

Hopefully next time they start a scrapping session Il get a vid of it, its quite intense to watch


Ashleigh

[Emma Turner]

Great pics, Ashleigh. What other species are in the tank with them? If the group aren't on their own, it might be worth thinking about, particularly as since the female has become gravid you have noticed a change in behaviour of the males.

Emma

[Ashleigh]

Hi Emma,

Currently I have the Emperors (who are moving tonight as they are starting to lose weight yet again so they are in for a major deworm treatment and antibiotics) 1 Anostomus anostomus, 7 Assorted cory catfish, 5 Chaetostoma sp, 1 Epalzeorhynchus bicolor, 1 unknown plec sp, 2 Pelvicachromis pulcher and 1 Baryancistrus sp, 10 little otocinclus catfish, 1 unknown rainbow that Im yet to id, 1 syno whos name skips me at this moment in time and 1 Nannoptopoma spectabilis . I havn't added any dithers yet as Im yet to find any I like for this particular tank.

I don't really think that they will spawn or anything (it would be ace if they did tho ) Im just amazed at how fat she got over such a short period of time.

I have to admit, this behaviour and the females getting a lot more gravid has only taken place since the tank was rearranged. I removed most of the bogwood in the tank and build a number of stone like structures with a number of pipe networks after Mark posted up his setup. Its only since then that Ive seen a major change in the way they interact with one another, either they like their new setup or hate it


Ashleigh

[Doc]

Interesting... Could be hierarchical in-fighting to establish or maintain the groups dominance levels. Equally could be spawning or pre-spawning activity (or a mix of all these).
Look forward to hearing more.

On the subject of dithers, I may have a group of 10-11 Scissortails, Rasbora trilineata going spare if you want them.

[mickthefish]

i've got 7 females that look like yours Ashleigh, and a big male, the poor buggers frightened to come out with all the females eyeing him up.

with my smaller striata they are all marked up like yours, both males and females.
i did see one brave little sod harrassing the big kubotai, the kub did'nt know what to do, so it swam as fast as it could with the striata chasing right behind it. comical to watch though.

mick

[Bully]

I don't really think that they will spawn or anything (it would be ace if they did tho ) Im just amazed at how fat she got over such a short period of time.

It would be truly ace if they did

I have to admit, this behaviour and the females getting a lot more gravid has only taken place since the tank was rearranged. I removed most of the bogwood in the tank and build a number of stone like structures with a number of pipe networks after Mark posted up his setup. Its only since then that Ive seen a major change in the way they interact with one another, either they like their new setup or hate it


Ashleigh

I think they must love it. When I bought my new tank and started with all the change arounds all my striata went nocturnal, they were not best pleased. Once I had all the stone work in place it was like instant transformation literally, the next day there were in and out the stones and became diurnal again. Since doing so I've noticed a few more females getting fat, and the sids are loving it too.

[piggy4]

Wonderful pics Ashleigh ! and some very interesting observations , i've noticed one of my male Striata's usually has a war wound or two from a large egg laden female , funnily there are a good few smaller Stiata's in the tank but the action seems to be mainly among the two larger fishes !
There are a few Rostrata's in this tank and they seem much more docile in their behaviour .

[Bully]

I got up this evening to clean the algae off the front glass (I fertilised this week so it grows pretty quick), and caught 2 striata having a pop. Quick dash to get the camcorder and I managed some footage - inc. algae as I decided not to clean it at that time I'll have a go at posting it up later.

There's a whole lot of activity going on in peoples tanks lately

[mickthefish]

Bully, you might have hit on something there mate, when i used to keep and breed alot of different corys i used to get more spawning when the weather was on the change,
well we've been having rain and strong winds and the temp has dropped outside, so it could be feasable that it could do the same with botias.
what do you lot think ?.

mick

[Doc]

It is logical to think so, seasonal change and normal barometric and other weather changes are often spawning triggers in many aquatic creatures. I hadn't done much maintenance on my main tank in the last few weeks and the almorhae and the histrionica are all much more active, the females are noticeably filling out and the males more feisty. Going by all the reports that have been given, not just lately but over the years, of spawning activity of many varieties of loaches as well as various other Families of fish you tend to start to thinking along those lines...

[Bully]

Given the summer we've had, anything is possible

[Ashleigh]

Given the summer we've had, anything is possible

Now that would be a great welcome to the end of the year


The striata are out again in full but no bickering tonight as far as I can see, the oto cats on the other hand are darting up and down the front of the tank in their shoal ever since I did a cooler water change about 30mins ago.

Its an interesting sight watcing a tiny oto swim as fast as it can along 4ft of aquarium


Ashleigh