Gay Fish ?

[Bahney]

I know that some animals can be gay, this is a proven fact in the animal kingdom.

but i think i have Gay starlights (L182)

i have had a breeding pair now for over a year and they have been very happy and had about 4 or 5 spawns, i have introduced another trio so i have 3 males and 2 females, this was about 5 months ago.

2 of the males appear to be trapping each other in one cave, my obvious thought was that they were fighting over who gets the cave but there behaviour is similar to to what the males/females there is no obvious sign of aggression and the 2 fish are always next to each other and follow each other around the tank, they show no interest in the huge and plump female's which are bursting with egg's and they have a choice of about 7 or 8 caves so im not sure what is going on.

The more i watch them the more i think that they are behaving like a breeding pair, it is very perculiar.

anyone ever experienced this before?

 

[scatz]

sounds interesting, i would suggest moving a lot of the caves out, 7 or 8 caves gives too much choice and variety for just 3 males, you almost want to force them into scrapping over caves in order to get them more focused on spawning instead of whatever gay fish do. lmao. plecs needs are very basic, they follow their natural instincts, find food, hide and reproduce, so limiting the potential breeding caves could spur on the natural instinct of grabbing the best cave, then i think the rest should come naturally

 

[bre]

Very interesting.....I have to agree with scatz. IF there are too many caves, then things seem to not happen. Cut down the caves (to roughly 1 per male) and hopefully they'll get themselves sorted out.

Out of curiosity how sure are you that they are both male? Some females get bristles aswell, so it's just a thought.

 

[macvsog23]

Sadly I find the habit of giving animals human attributes very unnerving.

I will not start to discus the word"gay" right now but assume your referring to behaviour that is known as homosexual?

When this happens in humans it is normally a direct attraction for a person of the same sex.
In animals it has many reasons. one that may be the reason for the behaviour of your fish is that the submissive males feel that survival chances are better if they assumes the behavioural pattens of a female.

Your mix of 3 males would cause this to happen.

The dominate male will behave like a male would normal and the submissive male will copy and mimic female behavioural pattens.

The super domination male in the mean time gets the two females and the two submissive males get to live. pretty smart yes?

Swap the mix around and your see the problem go away.

Buy the way its is common with lower primates and mammals cats dogs ect infarct every sp can have this happen, only in humans do we introduce the love element. I doubt if the animals actually show love only humans think they have this feeling.

In fact it is not love it is survival the strongest feeling on the planet.

Regards Bob

 

[thegeeman]

but i think i have Gay starlights (L182)

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Hilarious stuff

Cheers

thegeeman

 

[FF MkII]

Ian has 2 gay sterbai

 

[hullfishman]

i have not had this problem with plecs but i did have an adult group of copadichromis borleyi kadango and the male would just watch the female drop eggs and do nothing about fertilizing them, he was the only male i had as well and he was mature enough to breed, i had my suspicions about him lol
dave

 

[Bahney]

I will not start to discus the word"gay" right now but assume your referring to behaviour that is known as homosexual?

When this happens in humans it is normally a direct attraction for a person of the same sex.
In animals it has many reasons. one that may be the reason for the behaviour of your fish is that the submissive males feel that survival chances are better if they assumes the behavioural pattens of a female.

Your mix of 3 males would cause this to happen.

The dominate male will behave like a male would normal and the submissive male will copy and mimic female behavioural pattens.

The super domination male in the mean time gets the two females and the two submissive males get to live. pretty smart yes?

Swap the mix around and your see the problem go away.

Buy the way its is common with lower primates and mammals cats dogs ect infarct every sp can have this happen, only in humans do we introduce the love element. I doubt if the animals actually show love only humans think they have this feeling.

In fact it is not love it is survival the strongest feeling on the planet.

Regards Bob

Some very good points there, and after more careful watching it does appear to be more of a mimic action that the male is taking, i have taken out a lot of the caves in that side of the tank to perhaps kick start everything...........wish me luck !

 

[macvsog23]

Hi

I would never take caves out your problem is due to the mix of fish.

You must always try to have a mix that is predominately female.

In nature the males will have a territory that includes several females.

you can never mimic the area that a males territory will cover in a tank.

caves with distinctive makers ie a white stone by them or a piece of bog wood over them are a ideal way of giving line of sight makers.

Males will not be bothered by a large amount of females but a competitive amount of males ring all the danger bells for most animals.
As I said its like a pub with 5 guys and 2 girls your going to get problems.

Regards Bob

 

[garfieldnfish]

I have no female BNs in a 75 gal tank, only 3 adult males and they fight over caves occasionally. There are 2 female L316s but other than that it's just the guys.
But when I had a female BN in the same tank with them, one male got lucky and had a batch off eggs, but another male BN helped guard the eggs/fry. We called him "the uncle" because he would never stray far from the cave and defend the little ones against all other fish even so he was not the father. So much for fish behavior. Explain that one.

 

[Breamlegend]

I had a pair of cm bn males that would take turns caring fo the fry. They never fought, when one got tired of fanning he woud move and the other would start while he had a feed.

 

[macvsog23]

I had a pair of cm bn males that would take turns caring fo the fry. They never fought, when one got tired of fanning he woud move and the other would start while he had a feed.

Apity you could not document this as this behaviour is most interesting.