Keeping polygamous species as pairs?

hughitt1

hughitt1

Registered Hamster Rancher
Jun 18, 2006
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en.wikipedia.org
If a species is described as being best in ratios of "3-4 females for each male", how important is that if you plan to have only 1 male in the aquarium? I've heard (i think) for some polygamous species, that with only 1 female, the male may become aggressive, possibly because the female is ready to spawn as often as he would like. Is this the case?

Any input is appreciated :dance:
 
it's VERY important. even if you only have one male. he will aggressively pursue a single female and the spawning pressure can and often does kill her. if you keep 3-4 females, this dilutes the spawning aggression among the greater number of females. you should also have at least one cave per female and lots more rocks in which they can hide.
 
Cool. The tank is pretty well planted and i already have one cave ready- now just need to prepare a couple more. The cichlids i want to get are small (females are only around 1-1.5'') so it shouldn't be too bad. I wanna see if i can create all the caves using just driftwood and maybe rocks though, but not too sure how successful i will be with that.

thanks for input :)
 
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