zackcrack00
Members
So over the past few weeks I have noticed a shifting of "normal patterns" for the hierarchy in my mbuna tank. I have a small group/colony of Metriaclima zebra Mdoka sp. "Long Pelvic", a semi-aggressive species of mbuna. About three weeks ago I noticed my dominant male huddled in a corner with some very drab brown/yellow colors, not the yellow and electric blue I'm used to. All of the sudden, a slightly smaller fish (same species) came over and bit him and chased him away from the rock crevice. I wanted to see if she may be aggressive because she is holding so I fed some NLS to the tank. When all of the fish came up to eat, she was right up their with them, eating ferociously. I figured she was just an aggressive female or an ugly male because she didn't have any yellow to her like the males of the species.
I come back the next day and the dominant male is back being dominant and the dominant fish of unknown sex from the day before is no where to be found. I feed the tank (because, as many of you know mbuna are all over it when there is food in the tank) and see her in a rock crevice with a mouthful of eggs showing the usual coloring a female of the species should have. SO I went ahead and stripped her. Now, two or three weeks later. she's doing it again! Why is a female the dominant fish of my mbuna tank?!
I come back the next day and the dominant male is back being dominant and the dominant fish of unknown sex from the day before is no where to be found. I feed the tank (because, as many of you know mbuna are all over it when there is food in the tank) and see her in a rock crevice with a mouthful of eggs showing the usual coloring a female of the species should have. SO I went ahead and stripped her. Now, two or three weeks later. she's doing it again! Why is a female the dominant fish of my mbuna tank?!
three batches in three weeks.
