I've been keeping angelfish most of the 15 years I've been keeping fish. I've lost count of the number of spawns, but recently my fish stumped me with a behavior I've never seen.
I have 7 adult koi angelfish in a 65 gallon tank. It's a planted tank that they share with a small school of cardinals, some corydora sterbae, bristlenose plecos and a couple of rosy barbs. The angels spawn regularly, and I normally pull the eggs to hatch artificially. The dominant pair spawn more regularly than the other females, of course.
Recently, however my dominant pair has become a menage a trois. These fish (2 males, 1 female) now pair (or should I saw "triple") off at every spawn. The female will lay her eggs, and while the secondary male does guard duty over the spawning site, the dominant male will fertilize. Every couple of egg passes, however, the males will switch, with the dominant male shifting off to guard duty and the other male doing fertilization passes. It's not a sneak pass, either. The two males definitely work together. The dominant male will watch as the secondary male does his thing. Sometimes, the two males will even make passes together, side by side.
Has anyone seen behavior similar in their angelfish?
I have 7 adult koi angelfish in a 65 gallon tank. It's a planted tank that they share with a small school of cardinals, some corydora sterbae, bristlenose plecos and a couple of rosy barbs. The angels spawn regularly, and I normally pull the eggs to hatch artificially. The dominant pair spawn more regularly than the other females, of course.
Recently, however my dominant pair has become a menage a trois. These fish (2 males, 1 female) now pair (or should I saw "triple") off at every spawn. The female will lay her eggs, and while the secondary male does guard duty over the spawning site, the dominant male will fertilize. Every couple of egg passes, however, the males will switch, with the dominant male shifting off to guard duty and the other male doing fertilization passes. It's not a sneak pass, either. The two males definitely work together. The dominant male will watch as the secondary male does his thing. Sometimes, the two males will even make passes together, side by side.
Has anyone seen behavior similar in their angelfish?
