[FishFlake]

I have a couple juvenile Julidochromis marlieri Burundi that have begun going at each other mouth-to-mouth and I was wondering if this is male on male aggression or perhaps male / female courting or what. So far in this group of 6 there are no apparent pairs.

 

[Furcifer158]

are they the larger ones fighting or the smaller ones of your group?

If you bought them at the same time all around the same size, females grow faster and larger

I haven't kept julies in years but from what I remember I can't seem to recall my mated pairs ever doing this.

 

[FishFlake]

Yeah, I bought them at the same time and at about the same size. Some have grown bigger than others. These 2 are a bigger one and a smaller one.

 

[Furcifer158]

maybe it is them pairing off then. I just wish I could remember if mine did this.
I do remember a lot of shacking/vibrating by my male.

 

[FishFlake]

I'll let you know as things develop. opcorn:

 

[Furcifer158]

Sounds good I hope it is a pair :thumb:

 

[eeztropheus]

I can't tell you what is going on in your tank, but when my juli marlieris did this the smaller one was killed within a few days.

 

[SandBagger]

Was "searching" the site for Julidochromis marlieri "Burundi" and came to this post. Any update?

 

[FishFlake]

Sorry I didn't update sooner. Must not have been subscribed to the thread.

So the lip locking went on for a few more days and then stopped all together and hasn't returned.

Right now I still have 6 julis. There appear to be 3 pairs, one at either end of the tank and one in the middle. There has been zero apparent aggression, but 2 days ago something caught my eye deep in a rock pile. A BABY JULI! I don't know if there is more than one as I have only seen one at a time. Today it came out in the open and I got a good look at it.

There are calvus in this tank, so any siblings may have ended up as a lunch. This one is about 1/2 "+ long.

I had been waiting for the julis to start killing each other off as soon as the first pair formed, but as I said, there has been no aggression since that brief lip locking 3 months ago.

 

[starplayer]

Thanks for the update. Sounds an interesting tank. How are the Calvus doing?

 

[FishFlake]

Thanks,

The calvus are coming along nicely. I can't wait for them to be fully grown.

BTW, the juli fry count is up to 3

 

[prov356]

I had a few pair of juli's in with calvus and many fry survived. You'll continue to see the numbers increase slowly. That's normal.

 

[FishFlake]

Yep,

Just noticed 4 more hanging out with one of the other pairs.

 

[prov356]

Very nice, be prepared to be overrun soon. I saw juli fry swim right past my calvus and get totally ignored. I think they had an understanding between the juli parents and calvus. Juli's can be no nonsense fish. They don't always make it obvious, but mine ruled the rockpile.