41
Off to School
When the youngsters get to around 1.5 to 2cm in size the parents stop paying
attention to them or each other and everyone one goes their own way.
It appears that the parents separate at this point and neither of them pay any
attention to the children, which probably suits all the teenage fry as they’re not
paying any attention the old fogies anyway.
I lost the female from my first pair at this point as I’d partitioned the pair into a
relative small section of the tank to stop predation on the fry by my frontosa
and hadn’t allowed enough space for them to get through the divorce
proceedings without mishap.
The male joined up with the other two fish and a month or so later paired up
with the other female for a little caving activity; a few months later again she
bred with the other male.
Not so Swingin’ society?
I was getting the idea that ndobhoi society must be pretty swingy and wife
swappy at about this point but then found one of the males had jumped the
tank so maybe it was just a brief fling that had to end ... like the 60’s
The remaining pair have settled down into a regular and relatively peaceful
routine though you’ll note in that last picture that the male, despite being bigger has torn and tatty fins. I’m not sure if this is representative of the species,
whether he’s a bit clumsy whilst zooming in and around the rocks or whether
this is just a particularly equal-rightsy female with martial arts training.
Every 6 or 7 weeks they get together for a bit of caving, spend a week hatching
them, a couple of weeks looking after them and then a brief bit of stroppiness
before ignoring each other for a month while they catch up on some tv shows,
read a book or whatever it is they do in their spare time then ...do it all again.