Apple: The Jack Dempsey

[ThePiggy]

In April of this year, I purchased Apple(a Jack Dempsey) at an aquarium shop when I was living in Florida. They thought it was a female, but it was so young it was difficult to tell. He is over 5 inches long now. It turns out he's a male. I love him so much though! He developed a great personality right off the bat. He begs for treats whenever I'm near the tank. He loves to dig around in the sand. Sometimes he plays with the bio ball that floats in the water I put in a few pieces of petrified wood leaning against each other for something to hide in. He has a tank mate. It's a 3 or 4 inch catfish. He was just over 2 inches when I got him. I'm not sure what kind he is, exactly. I named him Puppy. The two of them have been in the same tank since I got Apple and he has never even tried to attack Puppy.

Now, here is where I'm a little curious about what's going on. Puppy has claimed the cave for himself. If Apple swims slowly, he can get in the cave and sit peacefully with Puppy. Once he's in there, Apple does this kind of waggle that I've seen Jack Dempseys do when they are going to breed, then Puppy does it back! Is this some kind of bonding? Other times when Apple is swimming by, even if he's not anywhere near the entrance to the cave, Puppy will dart out after him and chase him in the opposite direction of the cave. Apple just allows this kind of behavior from Puppy and gets out of his way.

Does anyone have any insight to what's going on here?

 

[Loony Fish]

what kind of catfish is "puppy"?

 

[ThePiggy]

As stated earlier, I don't know what kind he is. I tried doing research online to find out, but I couldn't find anything. I have had him for 7 months and right now he is 3 or 4 inches long, and just about half an inch at his deepest point. He is just as wide as he is deep. He has 4 feelers on his bottom jaw and 2 really long ones that come off his nose. His underside is white and everywhere else is silver with a sprinkling of black spots on him. He has a triangular dorsal fin and a second smaller fin half way between his dorsal and tail. His tail is a very pronounced "V". And he has 5 fins on his underside.

I wish I had a camera so I could just show it to you

 

[Loony Fish]

look up rapheal's catfish. i have one and it behaves similar.

 

[ThePiggy]

Nope, that's not the one.

 

[ThePiggy]

Here, I found it! Pictus catfish.

 

[Loony Fish]

they can get pretty big, plus some of there behavior might look aggressive, but it usualy isn't unless you see phisical damage to "Apple".

 

[ThePiggy]

I wasn't really worried about Apple, he is fast enough to get out of the way and I've never seen him get hurt. But it just made me wonder because I thought that he would be the bully, not the other way around. Could it be some sort of game they play? And what about the dance they do?