[Darkside]

Has anyone here had experiences with parasitic males? Some of the shell dwelling species have males with an alternative reproductive tactic where they stay small and mimic juveniles to sneak matings in with a larger male's female. My Telmatochromis temporalis have spawned and some of the fry have remained much smaller than the others, but seem otherwise healthy. In the wild up to 19% of the male population can exhibit this phenotype. Also it would seem that I have a parasitic male Ornatipinnis as well, but this tactic generally occurs in Lamprologus callipterus. I was just curious if anyone else has witnessed this sort of thing in their home aquaria.

 

[rrich741]

i have seen it with my stappersi before. I have 4 2:2 and the smaller male sometimes goes to the females shell when the dominant male is in his shell and hovers over. my babies range from a variety of sizes. one group that i had had males that only grew 1 1/2 in while other groups have had 2 1/2 in males.

 

[Dewdrop]

Thanks for sharing that info. Other than my 2 N. brichardi, I don't have any tangs but really enjoy all kinds of fun fish facts lol. Two years ago I would never have believed fish could be this interesting. My family thinks I'm nuts and in the one years time that I've had fish they now think I'm an expert lol. If they only knew...for every one thing I know about my fish there are probably 12 more things to be learned :lol: .

 

[fiupntballr]

I have seen it in my captive Cyprichromis

This is found in other fish families not just cichlids
They are often called 'sneaker' males

female colored male aka non colored male will start following around the male and female and then he shoots in at the right time.

 

[Darkside]

I think this tactic also occurs in some species of lizard as well. The size difference in my ornatipinnis is amazing, the regular males are over 2" and the parasitic males are under 1". I'm waiting to see how my Telmat juvies turn out as I've read that the difference in size is even larger.