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hey there gentle fish-folk...

i've been studying my fish today and noticed a few of my male rummies chasing and belly-butting the egg-laden female beckford's pencilfish. i'm pretty sure this is to encourage them to drop eggs for the males to eat (not all the males have cottoned on yet), but it's also making my poor alpha male pencilfish pretty angry! he can't compete with 5-6 male rummies. none of the females are quite ready to drop the eggs yet, but the rummies will be there when they do.

so if you're planning on breeding beckford's pencilfish, i'd say don't keep rummies with them. here endeth the note.

I doubt that Rummies would get away with that for long if they were in my aquarium. My male Beckford's are like Mbuna at times, and will suddenly get it into their heads to start chasing each other and other fish on a territorial basis. Male Beckford's can also be quite vicious wife beaters when they want to be in my experience, so I'd make sure your females outnumber your males by a good proportion.

However, I'll note your Rummies' interesting behaviour, and add it to the ever growing list of "reasons why fish don't have a three second attention span"


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

My Rummynose Tetra like to eat Corydoras eggs from the glass & they're quite capable of eating them all.


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Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

or a three-second memory, for that matter...