My electricus malapterurus is about 12", I really wonder some times what he's up to.. He sifts sans through his gills like there's no tomorrow sometimes, I think he's eating trumpet snails but I'm not sure. It took more than a year of adding a few 1/2 inch or so snails every month to finally get a breeding population and I still hardly see any so I really think he's eating them. I never knew they could do this though, has anyone else seen their E-cat sandsift like that? Seems like he hunts the way a hammerhead does, senses it in the sand then takes a giant bite..
The weirder thing that I really want to know about.. He carries and spits sand. He takes big gulps of sand, circles the tank a few times (having obvious trouble keeping aloft) and spits in in seemingly random spots. Sometimes he'll spit in the same spot a few times but then he'll do it in a few more with no real pattern..
These are really big gulps of sand, usually from the same end of the tank, but not always, but he has a LOT of trouble swimming around with it in his mouth and is SO determined to do it! Is this nesting behavior? He does usually take from the same end that he likes cleared of sand, I always assumed the clearing was probably a nesting behavior but he's got me wondering now. He does it almost every day and I've seen him grab loose java fern leaves and carry them around the way he does with sand (with much less difficulty).
What is he doing??
The weirder thing that I really want to know about.. He carries and spits sand. He takes big gulps of sand, circles the tank a few times (having obvious trouble keeping aloft) and spits in in seemingly random spots. Sometimes he'll spit in the same spot a few times but then he'll do it in a few more with no real pattern..
These are really big gulps of sand, usually from the same end of the tank, but not always, but he has a LOT of trouble swimming around with it in his mouth and is SO determined to do it! Is this nesting behavior? He does usually take from the same end that he likes cleared of sand, I always assumed the clearing was probably a nesting behavior but he's got me wondering now. He does it almost every day and I've seen him grab loose java fern leaves and carry them around the way he does with sand (with much less difficulty).
What is he doing??
