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Hi Everyone,

The fry from the first time my BNs spawned are nearly 8 weeks old. Recently I've noticed that some of the larger fry have been getting into what look like territorial disputes. The adult BNs are very peaceful so I'm a bit surprised that the fry are acting this way at such a young age. I've also seen them regularly sitting on top of one of the other adult BNs and doing what looks like rasping their slime coat - the picture is not very clear but it's possible to see one of the fry on the left side of the fish behind her dorsal fin. The adults don't seem to react at all to the fry doing this. Is this behaviour normal? The pair has since spawned again and the newest fry left the cave one week ago but I have not seen any similar behaviour from those ones.

Video of two fry arguing:
http://s1372.photobucket.com/user/lilu1 ... 4.mp4.html

Yes the aggression is very typical behaviour. You won't see it from the younger fry as they develop the aggression when they get older. I don't know if the fry are actually rasping the adults slime layer, but to observe them lounging on the adult's bodies is also typical behaviour.

Thanks for the quick reply! I guess as they get older they'll grow out of this phase and become more laid back like the adults?

Nope! They will get worse especially males fighting for dominance or the best cave. In the worst case scenario I've seen almost the entire dorsal surface rasped off of the loser to the alpha male in a particularly nasty fight. I'm guessing that the challenger just wouldn't back down. Usually the losers will move off to a spot away from the alpha male's territory while sustaining negligible damage.

Time to move them on to new homes or a larger grow out tank


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