What does this mean please...

[Metermaid]

First Mbuna tank stocked about 10 days ago - all juveniles...one of the Labidochromis Caer. (the biggest one about inch and a half) has started racing to one corner of tank and coming out to front, spitting lots of gravel out and repeating the procedure - what is the meaning of this please!!

Thanks

Rita

 

[Oddball]

This could be a compound thing but i assure you he is healthy!

1) He is digging for food scraps and so is moving the gravel
2) he is carving out his little spot in the territory to mark it as his
3) he is doing it to intimidate other males (unlikely as most fish compound this with flaring their gills and posturing)
4) He is practising building a breeding site, youngsters sometimes do this to attract a mate even though his chances of success are waaaaaay to slim
5)hes bored and digging a hole for diggings sake, this happens ALL the time

 

[G_Sharky]

Mbuna's dig a lot, that's one of the reason why its hard to have plants in a mbuna tank...they also do this for breeding purposes and territorial markings as mention above....There is nothing to worried about...digging is a good sign that your cichlid is healthy and living comfortable....

 

[Metermaid]

Oddball....I take it I can assume a 'HE' then ! - is that for definite or do females dig also ?

 

[Ferris]

Could be a SHE, males and females both do this. As everyone has said, nothing to worry about and perfectly normal.

 

[Oddball]

females do do this as ferris says, but i tend to find my male fish lean more to this tendancy to impress the females (rather like guys in a pub who get drunk, "sing" and "dance" to get the attention of the completely gobsmacked girls!)

 

[Metermaid]

Yeah yeah . . .we love all that !!!

 

[Oddball]

see what i mean