I know they're an SA cichlid, but I'm not gettin any responses on the SA/CA forum.
I've had these fish for a while. They are the oblongum pair in my avatar. I bought them as an established pair. A week after I got them, some eggs popped up, and I waited for them to hatch. They hatched out, everything fine. Now comes the bad part. I stripped the fry. They all died, and the parents got mad at each other. Over the next few days, the aggression between the parents escalated (aimed entirely at the female). The female's fins were getting damaged, so I put some pvc pipe in there for her to hide in. In a few days, she found it. From that point on, on the very, very rare occasion she came out (other than to eat), she was huddled in a corner somewhere, until she made a break back to the pipe. This went on for a few weeks, and I got sick of only seeing the male. I pulled the pipe out. At, first, it wasn't too bad. Within a week, her fins were torn, and she had missing scales. This was about two days ago. The pipe is now back in the tank.
There was never any aggression between them before this, and the male never goes after any of the other fish in the tank. I am doing as much as I can to shake things up in that tank. I totally redcorated the tank today.
Does this seem like a broken pair bond? If it is, can I form the bond again? If the bond might still be there, is there a way to help them out? My one suspicion might be that she hasn't developed eggs yet, but it's been so long since she last laid eggs (that I know of).
Please help me out.
I've had these fish for a while. They are the oblongum pair in my avatar. I bought them as an established pair. A week after I got them, some eggs popped up, and I waited for them to hatch. They hatched out, everything fine. Now comes the bad part. I stripped the fry. They all died, and the parents got mad at each other. Over the next few days, the aggression between the parents escalated (aimed entirely at the female). The female's fins were getting damaged, so I put some pvc pipe in there for her to hide in. In a few days, she found it. From that point on, on the very, very rare occasion she came out (other than to eat), she was huddled in a corner somewhere, until she made a break back to the pipe. This went on for a few weeks, and I got sick of only seeing the male. I pulled the pipe out. At, first, it wasn't too bad. Within a week, her fins were torn, and she had missing scales. This was about two days ago. The pipe is now back in the tank.
There was never any aggression between them before this, and the male never goes after any of the other fish in the tank. I am doing as much as I can to shake things up in that tank. I totally redcorated the tank today.
Does this seem like a broken pair bond? If it is, can I form the bond again? If the bond might still be there, is there a way to help them out? My one suspicion might be that she hasn't developed eggs yet, but it's been so long since she last laid eggs (that I know of).
Please help me out.
