what

[Hybridfish7]

Bootleg breeder box in the growout tank with a batch of fry that became free swimming 2 days ago
And then their 2 month old sibling
Never even touched the same water consecutively
Older sibling is barely over half an inch, but is doing head shakes, flaring, even showing a breeding dress, guarding it's younger siblings
Anyone ever seen anything like this? I made a post about my nanolutea spawning with older fry and the older fry "cleaning" the eggs (not too sure on that because smaller juveniles snuck into the nest and ate the eggs so I don't know if that was the original intention) but I've never heard of anything around juvenile fish just randomly adopting their siblings to this extent
I'll get a video in a second

 

[Fishnerd360]

Interesting, I never heard of this happening with this species to this extent, but I’ve witnessed Neolamprologus brichardi juveniles to protect younger siblings similar to this, but I haven’t seen them going into head shakes or showing their breeding dress, more of going to front of them to help protect the fry/chasing away enemies.

 

[Hybridfish7]

So update, it seems to have stopped with the behavior, but I wonder what would happen if I put it with the fry or vice versa. I'll see if I can find that individual again and try it out.

 

[Hybridfish7]

Nevermind she's back

 

[Deadeye]

That is weird
I’ve seen my kribs associate with the new fry, but never shown any parental instinct.
This definitely warrants further tests. Perhaps isolate it with fry, see if it raises them? Who knows, maybe it is just protecting them so it can kill them lol.

 

[Hybridfish7]

That's what I thought, maybe it's isolating and maintaining them as a food source because I've seen it leave and lose interest and then start pecking at them

 

[Deadeye]

Are these guys cons or something else? Septemfasctiata?

 

[Hybridfish7]

These are actually impure honduran red point - cutteri hybrids
Not planning on selling but I wanted to see what they'd turn out like since I rarely see cutteri hybrids but this is an added bonus
Maybe I can test repeatedly to see if this is just an anomaly or some kind of hybrid vigor thing this pairing creates

 

[fishhead0103666]

These are actually impure honduran red point - cutteri hybrids
Not planning on selling but I wanted to see what they'd turn out like since I rarely see cutteri hybrids but this is an added bonus
Maybe I can test repeatedly to see if this is just an anomaly or some kind of hybrid vigor thing this pairing creates

Now that would be a thread worth reading.

 

[Hybridfish7]

I don't believe it.

she's guarding them IN the fry container