Recent Convict Aggression

[Jayhawk]

I have a pair of convicts in a 20 gallon long tank. They'd spawned about 1 week ago, but none of the fry survived. Anyway, the pair, the sole occupants of the tank, had gotten along exceptionally well until today.

Today though, the male is aggressively chasing the female. He keeps cornerning her up top in the tank, and I'm not sure what's up.

Could this be normal courting behavior?

Could my pair have unpaired?

Would the addition of either target or dither fish help any? And if so, any recommendations on types of fish?

Thanks,

Eric

[optix]

Same here man, he doesn't harm her does he, mine doesn't but he flares up and chases the hell out of her for a few seconds and then starts up again occasionally leaving her alone all together for about 45 minutes. I have mine in a 29. Target fish wont do any good, I've already tried. if you want to try dithers or target's get a group of about 6 zebra danio's

[Tightdog1]

target fish in a 20g with a pair of cons will just get regarded as food/intruders. you could try to put in more floating plants and more decor for hiding places for the female.

in my brothers tank with the pair of cons he has sometimes i see the female con hiding with my old blue acara who guards all other fish

[Jayhawk]

So, targets would get beaten, but some dithers might work? I've used white clouds and variatus (sunburst) platys in the past with Tanganyikans (who have their own grumpy personalities). Might a trio of either of those work?

Or, would an armoured pleco like a bushnose or a rubber lip give the cichlids something to distract them?

Thanks again,

Eric

[Tightdog1]

dithers of zebra danios would get eaten up, my brother had like 8 zebras in his 55g and they all were eaten within like a week. maybe giant danios, have heard they work well with convicts but my brother has never tried them. his tank seems to be fine with out dithers.

i think the best idea would be to get a bigger tank. because 2 cons in a 20g is kinda pushin it but it could work if they wernt so aggressive.

JW how big are these cons?

[Jayhawk]

A bigger tank is not going to happen (small house & the wife says no on this one).

The convicts are about 1.5" SL (without tail) for the male and about 1.0" SL for the female.

They are in no way big yet which is part of my concern.

[Jayhawk]

I tell you - there is no way to figure out fish sometimes! The female is still getting chased a bit, but tonight she is chasing the male as much and has really torn into him a few times...now he's giving her a lot more space.

I wonder if they could have been testing each other or their pair bond after their first batch of fry disappeared (I'm guessing one of them ate the fry, but I never once saw that happen so they could have had other problems). Anyone know if convict pairs test each other?

It had been so long since I had a cichlid pair not getting along that I think I had forgotten one of the cardinal rules of fishkeeping - that sometimes just waiting is the best course of action.

Oh well, alls well that ends well sayeth the Bard...:D

[ChilDawg]

They definitely test each other...almost all fish with pair bonds test each other when something goes awry!!!

[Swimfins]

I've got the reverse happening. The male can't go anywhere in the tank without the female giving chase. She'll even just spot him when cruising by and chase him from the corner. He hides inside floating plants until she spots him and goes after him again.

I'm considering a tank divider.

I'm worried because he hasn't been feeding. She is fully colored, all dark lavender and bold stripes now, bright red abdomen.
The male is a bout 2 inches long, she is about 2.5 long.

What to do?

[mooman]

I think part of the problem is that some cichlids are just not compatible. In nature cichlids will pair up based on size and aggresiveness. If one or the other is two big/small, or too aggressive/not aggressive enough they look elsewhere. Not an option in an aquarium. That's why the serious breeders always buy a bunch of sub-adults and pull out pairs as they form. Again, not an option for those of us with limited tank space. I guess that's the price we pay for being chiclidiots. :sad:

The one thing that was suggested to me, and worked (too late if you already have the fish of course) is to either buy bonded pairs, or in my case, camp out infront of a tank full of fish and try to pick the ones that are already starting to bond. (the tricky part is keeping track of both of them, once the lfs guy starts in with the net :duh: ) As to what you do when the "pair bond" breaks down, well if I knew that i wouldn't have had to come home to a dead female cacatuoides after her second spawn failed.

[Swimfins]

I didn't get much of a choice. The guy scooped out a male and female as i had asked for. Now, I'm wondering if I leave her alone in the tank and put him in another until he grows up to a bigger boy and re-introduce him, do you think time away might help her forget he's not quite her cup of tea?
Is it love at first sight or shall I walk by again?
so to speak?

[mooman]

That sounds doable. Maybe try beef him up, but cut back on her feedings a little bit untill he is a little larger than she is. One of the studies cited in a book I read dealt with a cichlid species where the sizes of the sexes overlapped (largest female could be bigger than the smallest male). However when they looked at who was pairing up they noticed that the the males were always the larger of the pair, and when they measured the difference between the male and female in a pair, they got a fairly constant ratio so that you could almost predict who would pair up from a given group of fish based on thier sizes. The book was The Cichlid Fishes, by Barlow. Most of his personal studeis were done on midas cichlids, but he cites studies on many other cichlids. It's a great read if you ever come across a copy.

[Swimfins]

Thank you very much, I'd hate to lose him. He's a nice looiking fish with what will eventually be beautiful finnage too.
I will look out for the Barlow book.
I'll separate him for awhile. I think he's just a bit too tiny and not aggressive enough for her tastes (wimmen eh?). I'll feed him well and se what happens.
Being alone and well fed might bring him out of his shell.

[NDferro]

Most will disagree with me on this but ive found that a green terror works to keep my fish under control because he just cant leave other fish alone the convicts spent most of there time teaming up on him tell thay just became unceprable so try this it works great

in my 40gallon

Look here 40gallon.blogspot.com

2 Convicts
1 Green Terror
1 Guppy
3 Black Skirt Tetra
3 Red eye Tetra
3 Seapia Tetra
1 Butterfly Ram

[Swimfins]

Sad news, I lost the male tonight. I moved im to a temp. tank and he jumped.
I came home to find him on the floor, too late he was long gone when I got h
ome from work :thud:

I'll be looking for another male and keep on trying. This time a larger more robust man I think :(

[Swimfins]

Well, I got another well colored male. He's stil smaller than her by a half inch or so and she did the same thing. It was good for 20 minutes before she started harrassing him. Its another small male, so I've got him in my 66g until he gains a bit of size.
I think size is the issue. Yessssss. I'll try and bulk him out and reinroduce in a month or so.......
I've never seen this before. Lol, I'm in a whole new world....sick-lids ;)