I saw something tonight I've never seen before. Today I got two new ones to replace two that jumped and died (which may have been related to the fighting...) Well ate least I got a female, so I can potentially breed them in the future. Well the new male was doing this odd sort of dance around and with the female. It was swimming against its side and in circles too. Of course this could just be new tank behavior, but I thought it was interesting.
BTW, can I have contact info of that breeder you mentioned?
Yes most definitely... i used to think that honeycombs used to be the most peaceful fish ever, but males can actually be quite aggressive towards each other, especially during feeding. I also used to see my honeycombs do this when i had them... See 0:00-0:20
So I witnessed two fights within the last week between the two big male honeycombs. Their homes have always been right next to eachother, but now I think they can't live together any longer. The second fight happened (which just happened a few minutes ago now) for an obvious reason: food. The bloodworms I put in tonight stuck in a clump, and one of them took the whole thing. The other one, ignoring all the free ones around him, thought "hey, I want that food" and went after it. They both tumbled around a bit, then stopped. However, even (right) after all the food was gone, they had a fight. It looked the same as before: they twirled around trying to bite each other, and sometimes did get a hold of the other's jaw. When not in combat, they had their spines all the way out and looked very intense. Now one of them is exile. One might have to find a new place soon. Ever see anything like that?
Yeah they do look slightly different. I think i may have C. altae as well, though i'm not sure. I'm actually going to be visiting with the curator of the freshwater jarred fish collection (containing over 680,000 species!) at the university of kansas in a couple of months, and i plan on asking him if there are any other significant differences between the two species.
I think I actually have Centromochlus altae, not perugiae. I was doing some research, and they say that altae is the "big spot" variety. I actually like that pattern better than a lot of perugaie that I've seen. :P
Mine used to be crazy for bloodworms, but now they never come out for them! It's kind of concerning... i'm worried that they're not getting enough food now that i have hungry roseline barbs in the tank. I was thinking about setting up a 20L just for the honeycombs. It would give me an opportunity to try and breed them, i guess.
Thanks, they're so easy to photograph when they stay still, which they do for most of the day. I've found that they go NUTS over bloodworms, and all 3 will come out to eat at any time. They're such pigs and they always end up with fat bellies!
