http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10888705.2011.600664
I searched (maybe poorly) to see if a thread had been started on this and could not find one. An interesting read, which I will try to summarize without misstating the findings.
Four interesting points:
1) Aggression is heightened by reducing the size of the environment independent of breeding or any perceived resource.
2) With sufficient space and species members, even Midas Cichlids will tend to shoal.
3) Sufficiently complex environments can enable even alpha males to abandon aggression. (Please refer to the study to examine this concept.)
4) Making environments barren (no substrate, caves, decor) had a negative effect on fish in a number or ways.
If anyone wants to amend my points please do so, as I may have misread this.
My takeaway from this is that some of the behavior we think is 'normal' is in fact, aberrant behavior, caused by the manner in which some species are treated.
I searched (maybe poorly) to see if a thread had been started on this and could not find one. An interesting read, which I will try to summarize without misstating the findings.
Four interesting points:
1) Aggression is heightened by reducing the size of the environment independent of breeding or any perceived resource.
2) With sufficient space and species members, even Midas Cichlids will tend to shoal.
3) Sufficiently complex environments can enable even alpha males to abandon aggression. (Please refer to the study to examine this concept.)
4) Making environments barren (no substrate, caves, decor) had a negative effect on fish in a number or ways.
If anyone wants to amend my points please do so, as I may have misread this.
My takeaway from this is that some of the behavior we think is 'normal' is in fact, aberrant behavior, caused by the manner in which some species are treated.
