Addition of 3 rbp's to group of 8...spawning behavior curious...

[mhansen76]

Good evening everyone,

All 11 are doing great. I am feeding them a mix of tilapia/pellets/crickets. random potatoes/nuts/peas. About a week after the addition 3 of the original shoal have turned very darkish/almost black. They have become very pissed off and are chasing all of the others, even ones that are double their size. Fin nipping which had almost stopped to almost nil' is on the rise.

My question: Are they just posing?.... they are all less than a year old but are about 5.5'' in length. Are they in a pre-pubescent spawning state?
2 pics...hope they turned out....

185 gallon
3 HOB's
UGF
4 powerheads
medium brown/white substrate
live plants

Thanks,

Missy

 

[mhansen76]

sorry the pics are fuzzy...but hopefully ya'll can see the color variance.....

 

[jp80911]

should be darker when they are ready to breed, maybe just fighting for territories.
you should also see nest building behavior.

 

[solidconceptgroup]

mine have been doing the samething for about 2mo's now, I've been wondering the samething...they nip at each other all time...

I've been told it's lack of food, but I feed mine twice a day (pellets/fish cuts/feeders)

 

[BRUNER247]

Male will stake a spot out n dig a nest n the rbp bout to spawn will turn almost blk before anything happens

 

[MPG]

You have any dead spots in there? 4 Filters and 4 powerheads seems intense for a 180g.

 

[pyromaniac]

none of those fish look mature enough to breed. maybe in another few months..

 

[BRUNER247]

Size has nothing to do with it. At the very least they'd have to be 12-18 months old.

 

[mhansen76]

You have any dead spots in there? 4 Filters and 4 powerheads seems intense for a 180g.

@MPGI am new to this...I thought the more filtration the better...I'm not sure about dead spots...but they don't seem to like one of the powerheads...every morning it is shoved in the corner of the tank.

@Bruner The 5''ers seems like teenagers, riling up the older ones and acting out the spawning rituals....

 

[mhansen76]

Size has nothing to do with it. At the very least they'd have to be 12-18 months old.

The oldest is 2 years old, while 3 are about a year old, the others are guestimated at about 7months old.