Fish Love

 One of the fish families in our tank is the ‘Labidochromis Caeruleus’, commonly known as ‘Yellow Lab’.  If they had a family flag it would be yellow with one black stripe across the top.  (This could also be their family Crest if they were Irish).   All joking aside, their family markings serve an important purpose.  These markings help the fish tell each other apart.  Even the males of the ‘Yellow Lab’ family have the same symbol as the females, a black stripe on their dorsal fin.  Sadly, the only male of this kind (in “Jake’s tank”) died years ago leaving the women fish behind. 

Isabel is in the center, the smaller of the sisters

This is the story of Isabel and how she has coped with years of not having a partner.  Isabel gets along well with others.  However, she keeps getting herself into another kind of trouble.  In her search for love, Isabel keeps having children and we know for sure that she is a widow.  So, who is this fellow? We don’t know.  Most of the time, the males are only attracted to certain specific markings, making this an unusual problem.  If two different breeds mix, the little fry turn out with unclear traits, often losing their bright colors.  This is not optimal because they are often rejected by fish society.  If they don’t have clear traits, the other fish will think they don’t belong there.  Therefore they may have fewer opportunities to succeed and procreate. 

This is quite puzzling to us.  Isabel and her partner are the only ones breaking the rules.  This has not happened with any other fish in our tank, except Isabel.  Why is she getting pursued by a fish not of her breed anyway?  But whatever the reasons, Cichlid fish make little fry all the same way. 

The mating ceremony is much like a dance.  The male sees the beautiful girl fish with her stripes or dots on just the right places and her body colors with just the correct shades.  So he tries to catch her attention.  He’ll get close to her, shake his body and swim away.  By doing this, he hopes that she, when mesmerized by his elegant figure, will follow him to his cave.  He’ll need to display his fins and bright colors many times.  He’ll circle back around over and over to see if she’ll accept his proposals.  If she does accept, she’ll follow him to his well-prepared spot.  There, they will swim in a circle, following each other in a kind of a dance.  She’ll lay an egg on the ground; he’ll swim over it and fertilize it.  She’ll swim back around and pick it up while laying another egg down.  Again, He’ll swim over the next egg.  She’ll come back around and pick that one up too.  Her mouth will be full by the end of this dance.  We’ve seen them have as little as 2 or as many as 25 eggs being carried by a female fish.

A female fish may always choose to ignore the male fish.  She needs to be sure that she is strong before accepting any fish’s advances.  She knows it’s not easy to be a fish mom.  She’ll keep the eggs in her mouth until she is ready to let them go.  It will take about 40 days.  She will not eat during that time because she’ll be holding her babies instead.  The little fry will safely grow in her mouth until they are ready to come out.  This is an amazingly unselfish act.  She’ll go without food while she is pregnant.  This is hard on her and she’ll become weak.  A pregnant fish gets moved to a private net.  That way, she can rest and not be chased by other fish.  Also, while separated, she’ll recuperate faster.

This may be hard to see.. but there are 7 baby fish here.  (5 yellow and 2 grey ones)

Well, Isabel was a mom again.  We now have seven new little fry in the upstairs tank.  They were born Nov 2011.