So let me explain what’s going on here. You’re looking at two male Ancistrus fish, South American vegan (of course!). Part of a shoal of about 20, all of whom have been with me for thirty years. The things they’re clustered round are Ancistrus fish eggs, and they are guarding, not eating, them. The female lays them then leaves it to the male (just one, usually!) to look after them as they develop, involving a lot of fin fanning to keep the water flowing around them and thus prevent rot. Hopefully, these two males are good friends since the baby fish, when they emerge, will have two fathers!
Quite an epic evening last night. A large male and a large female turned up. I was on my new viewing plinth, about five feet up. They had fun for 20 mins or so finding the peanut stashes I’d left. Then the (highly intelligent!) male worked out that the motionless creature draped in black, on the plinth, had a bowl of peanuts at his feet. It took him 5 more mins to work out how to get up onto the platform (he came in from the back, I was frozen still the whole time). Then, very deliberately, he came up, gave me a long stare, then proceeded to very carefully smell every inch of my trousers! So that’s what a human smells like... I’ve been entered into his smell-memory. It was, frankly, awesome
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