Is this rivalry or courtship ?

[Ansorgii]

I recently acquired 2 orinos from a friend who suspected them to be a pair. They were always side by side and very harmonating, but in a tank with lots of other cichlids and still very young. They just cracked 25cm/10inch.

Now that they are with me they recently started to change between being either next to each other or fighting, however the fighting is unlike what I have seen so far.

It is just one attacking the other which never returns the act, they both puff but never face each other like what I am used to from rivalry. It reminds me of my Oscars where the male just shred his female which never fought back while being barely smaller.

Orinos aren't the easiest to tell apart in terms of sexing, from what I see they could be male and female or just both males with one being the dominant.

The aggressor is more green, has spots on his brow and seems a bit more high backed, especially towards the soft dorsal fin.

The other is way more turquoise and a bit more slender.

Both are identical in size.

I added a Video of a fight, dont judge the quality, its just my phone and the lighting makes the glas very reflectiv. They colours dont come through aswell.

 

[tlindsey]

recently acquired 2 orinos from a friend who suspected them to be a pair.

It's possible for the bond to have been broken if they were a true pair.
That's pretty intense aggression between the 2 in the vid.

 

[Ansorgii]

I have never seen my Cichla going at it like that before, but I have seen this in clips of courtship before spawning.

But they are just around 1 year old, which is very young.

It could also be that they harmonated in their previous tank since they shared it with lots of bigger fish, and now that they are more or less alone they see each other as rivals or can't cope with the sudden change.

I saw this with oskars a couple of times, the moment they were put solo the male just arttacked the female nonstop for weeks.

The crassi in the backround attacked his female nonstop till I added the cichla.

I just wonder wether these are a pair in crisis or 2 males now having space. Getting female cichla is very hard here, so if I would need to ad 2 I should know as soon as possible.

 

[tlindsey]

I have never seen my Cichla going at it like that before, but I have seen this in clips of courtship before spawning.

But they are just around 1 year old, which is very young.

It could also be that they harmonated in their previous tank since they shared it with lots of bigger fish, and now that they are more or less alone they see each other as rivals or can't cope with the sudden change.

I saw this with oskars a couple of times, the moment they were put solo the male just arttacked the female nonstop for weeks.

The crassi in the backround attacked his female nonstop till I added the cichla.

I just wonder wether these are a pair in crisis or 2 males now having space. Getting female cichla is very hard here, so if I would need to ad 2 I should know as soon as possible.
[/QUOTE
duanes

N newworld

 

[bassinmike85]

hard to tell by the video but cichla orinos are/can be one of the most aggressive cichla. if they haven't made a spawn site then its most likely they are fighting.

 

[Ansorgii]

I didn't know they are more aggressive, but it makes sense if I consider my previous ones. Thanks for the info.

They made no site or anything like that, they are still young and only with me since very recently.

My question is now more towards wether they even could be a pair or are just 2 males. Today I vented them but the results didn't make it much clearer.

The passive one is definetely a male, the aggressive could be a female. So the opposit of what I suspected :/

After that they divided the tank in two halves, the green one still comes over to provocate the turquoise one, but he usually ignores it, and when he reacts the other knuckles under. Both also go at the Crassipinis now, but they dont care much yet.

 

[Ansorgii]

Now they do a bit of everything, swim together, swim independent, form territories and display aggression. Tho it is always the green one starting it while the blue doesnt really fight back. But it has become a lot less violent, now its mostly just "barking at each other"

 

[Ansorgii]

I found this video on Youtube that looks similiar to what mine did, also has the female beating up the male after the pressure of other fish was removed (my crassi are total softies, no comparisson to their previous tank)

So I am just gonna go with them being a young pair and see how it goes. Both the vents and fins point at them being 1-1