Adoption?

[wi_fishguy]

So, had the weirdest thing happen recently. We have a 29Gallon Tang. tank with a S. eupterus, several N. Brichardi, & 3 N. Leleupi. After about 1.5 years and after about a week of putting a large shell in the tank, the leleupi were guarding the shell full of fry. Thinking that the Brichardi would make a quick lunch of them, I scooped the scell up with over half the fry inside and placed it into an HOB system. Well at the 2+ month point it turns out the fry are actually Brichardi, and not Leleupi at all. Who knew? Anyone else have something similar?

Now the Leleupi are guarding another batch of fry that I plan to leave in the tank and see what happens.

 

[Anonymous]

That's coOl!

 

[Jay]

I guess they wanted to be parents so bad they took over. Ha! But no never heard of that before............

 

[Betty]

Never heard of that either. Very interesting. My leleupi are alone in their tank, so no chance for that to happen anyway. Any pictures?

 

[wi_fishguy]

Here is a pic of both the male and female Leleupi guarding the fry that were hiding in the shell:

And here are the fry after a month or so:

 

[wi_fishguy]

Clearly these fry did not come from the leleupi.

 

[Betty]

I don't know. They look like leleupi to me. I haven't kept brichardi, so I can't say for sure, but it seems more likely that they are leleupi. When young, they don't have color.

And old topic of mine -- if you scroll way down to the bottom of the page, you'll see some pictures of mine before they get color, if you want to compare with yours. --> viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1017

 

[wi_fishguy]

Wow, you might be correct. That last picture is at least a few weeks old and it appears there are streamers on the caudal fins of these little guys now. There are only 2 species in the 29 gallon tank, the leleupi and brichardi. Who knows? Maybe their color will start coming out soon. I'll keep this updated as they develop.

 

[Betty]

Yeah, keep us updated. It would be really interesting if they are brichardi. It's hard to tell at that size -- they all look the same.

 

[wi_fishguy]

Betty, I think you were correct. The more they grow, the more they look like Leleupi, but they sure looked like Brichardi when they were young, appeared to have streamers from their fins. But as they grow, the less they look like Brichardi.