Ompok bimac, What Are They Doing?

straitjacketstar · Post by **straitjacketstar** » 21 May 2007, 23:27

It was waterchange day for me yesterday and after emptying the 135 of it's 50% I went back down to add the hose that would refill the tank. When I looked over at the tank I found some commotion going on in one corner under a scraggly piece of grapewood.

I have 3 O. bimacs, 2 brown and 1 albino. The smallest of the 3, a brown, had the albino in what can only be explained as a body lock. It had curled itself around the albino's back, into an upside-down U shape (reminiscent of a betta's spawning embrace) and would not uncurl itself even though the albino was simming around in a seeming attempt to get it off. The albino also appeared to shake a bit.
This went on for all of about 45 seconds, the brown snapped out of it's upside-down U position and proceeded to behave very aggressively toward the albino, less so toward the other brown.
The albino is usually lording over the other two so to see the little one so up in the face of the albino was a complete and utterly confusing surprise.
Now the question. What on earth does it mean? I've never seen them exhibit such behavior before.
They range in size from 6-7", the albino being the largest, most aggressive and quite rotund, the other two are considerably slender in comparison and much less aggressive.

Post by **Silurus** » 21 May 2007, 23:51

Congratulations, you have just observed a spawning event (brown: male, albino: female).

straitjacketstar · Post by **straitjacketstar** » 22 May 2007, 22:18

Word?

That's pretty cool! Have they been spawned in captivity before?
Nothing that I saw came of this behavior, no eggs were dropped and they stopped bothering one another shortly after I was done with the water change, everyone's been really laid-back since.
It would be intersting to figure out what might have triggered the behavior. Only thing I can recall out of the norm was that the day before I'd given the tank a heavy feeding of oyster. Wait...aren't those supposed to have some kind of aphrodisiac quality about them?

Post by **Shane** » 23 May 2007, 18:52

It would be intersting to figure out what might have triggered the behavior.

It was almost certainly the water change. If you observe the behavior again I would empty the tank of all fishes immediately and watch the tank closely for 2-3 weeks to see if any fry show up. There may be eggs laid that you are not seeing. This would be the first spawning I have heard of.
-Shane

straitjacketstar · Post by **straitjacketstar** » 23 May 2007, 19:37

Thanks so much for the input.

The moving of all fish from the tank is easier said than done but I might give it a try if it happens again.

Thanks again to both of you!