Walter the angelfish had another batch of eggs in the corner of the tank on top of a structure. Seen in the above picture as the orange to the very left, Archie, the swordtail uses the structure as his home. There is still no male angelfish in the tank, so none of Walter’s eggs will be fertilized, but when she has eggs she gets very protective of them.
Poor Archie! He must stay in the structure or encounter Walter’s wrath. What a turn of events!
Archie was part of the original batch of fish I purchased with the first new aquarium. His tendency to pick on the other small fish led to my purchasing another ten gallon aquarium. He even picked on his fellow female swordtail. The couple became Archie and Edith. The picked on fish including Edith mass migrated to the new ten gallon, their new peaceful promised land.
Over time, the tanks evolved, some fish came and some went, aquariums were changed and Archie and Walter ended up in the same ten gallon tank. They generally ignore each other except when Walter has eggs, then Archie is banished to a life of living only in his little fortress home.
In a previous time Walter had eggs, I moved Archie to a different tank for his comfort, thinking I could return him when Walter was done with the eggs. Man o man was that a bad idea! In about the first twenty seconds, he attacked a platy, then another platy, then a neon tetra, then another neon tetra.
Holy cow dude! What is your problem?!
Clearly this wasn’t going to work, so back in with Walter he went to live his life in solitude in his little corner fortress. So as it stands, Archie and Walter are the King and Queen. Although hiding in a corner fortress isn’t a very Kingly place to be, it seems to be the tank and place Archie is most comfortable in.
I am sure Archie is thinking, “This TOO shall pass.”
Yes, Archie, it will.
