Ornate territorial battle, photos and video

[Cohazard]

I caught my new male ornate fighting with my female late last night.

I turned on the tank lights to dissuade the fight and they quit shortly after, but I manged to shoot a video before they stopped.


These pics show off the variation in their pattern.

Here's the video, with commentary :video of ornates fighting

 

[Infblue]

that looks cool although i hope they'll stop soon enough! good luck!

 

[Cohazard]

that looks cool although i hope they'll stop soon enough! good luck!

thanks, they did stop right at the end of the video (I had just turned on the tank lights to stop the fighting and shoot the video).

This morning, they're both out and about with only minor damage to their tail fins, that should heal in no time thankfully.

 

[krzr3000]

I find it hilarious that when there is a fight going in the tank some random tankmate will usually come over (your gt in this case). Usually nipping, joining in...too seemingly break it up.

 

[Hapdude]

Ordinarily I would say this behavior is a prelude to mating. But your two ornates look awfully small, and to be honest neither one looks like a male to me! Maybe just bad angles on the pics?

 

[Cohazard]

I find it hilarious that when there is a fight going in the tank some random tankmate will usually come over (your gt in this case). Usually nipping, joining in...too seemingly break it up.

haha yeah I agree, I saw a video on youtube of a fight between an FH and a GT and a pair of oscars are just watching the fight and you can see their eyes following the fight lol

Ordinarily I would say this behavior is a prelude to mating. But your two ornates look awfully small, and to be honest neither one looks like a male to me! Maybe just bad angles on the pics?

Yes they're only 7.5" appx so this is definitely a territorial issue not mating.

None of the pics show the anal fin well, but he is definitely male. His anal fin looks like the platinums in the second pic.

 

[FishGoneWild]

Hopefully, this will stop soon or you may end up seeing your bichirs with ragged fins and tails from the fighting. very cool video since I've yet to see a bichir fight until now. As entertaining as it looks to see fish fights, I really hate it. I like a peaceful looking community tank with no bullies. If I wanted bully fish I would have gotten pike, channa, piranha, or flowerhorn. Return those ornates and go pick up Iori's ornates. They seem more peaceful and are just as nice looking.

 

[AiR foRc3 wUnZ]

You have a good taste in plecos.

 

[beblondie]

Hapdude:the mating ritual is completely different.
Cohazard: yup they are simply establishing whos in charge and usually ends when one backs away.they'll be fine, its actually normal

 

[rjmtx]

That was interesting, a great glimpse of raw behavior... Too bad it was going on in your tank. Something about these standoff type fights has always amazed me. I've read about blind catfish doing that sort of thing for hours on end. Good catch. Hopefully they can sort it out before that GT decides to go all in.