Africans, territories and fighting

[Vallisneria]

I've been watching my red empress beating on my pheno and it brought up a couple questions. How come a fish that is getting picked on doesn't run and hide? How come they keep coming back to the aggressor's territory for another beating?

My red empress(6") "owns" the right side of my 90g and is usually pretty chill but for some reason decided to pick on my pheno(3") today. I watched them all afternoon(the tanks next to my computer) and the red empress only chased/picked at the pheno when he came across the center onto the right side. The red empress would chase him and then he would come back to the right side and stay at the top right corner, right next to where the red empress swims. Why wouldn't he just stay on the left or hide in the rocks? You'd think that hiding in a cave would be safer then "hiding" out in the open in the red emps territory. You'd think if you were getting beat on you'd want to run and hide in a dark corner where the fish couldn't see you.

I was just confused as to why a fish would continue to return to the spot that is the reason for the beatings in the first place. I dont' think the pheno was trying to fight the empress. The agression looked all one sided, coming from the red empress. The pheno was just dumb and kept going to the same spot. Not sure what he was trying to acomplish.

This is also not a isolated incident, or specific to africans. I've seen this same "returning to the same spot,not hiding" thing in a range of my fish. I always found it puzzling.

[nevchewy]

I don't know if this is true about all pheno's but... I don't think they much like caves but rather prefer the open water.

When my Dominant red Zebra male is on a tear my Pheno always takes a bite mark. I have never seen him resort to a cave to hide or go to a different part of the tank. I don't know if he has too much pride or he is just that tough.

I wish i had an answer to your question... but i don't.

Have you tried rearranging the tank to see if that curbs some aggression?

nev