Are they fighting or trying to mate???

[Lady G]

Ok I have a Midas/RD and what was suppose to be a RD, but I think it is a Midas/RD also. Anyway, they are "lip locking" they don't really connect mouths just open mouth at each other, which I thought was aggression. Now the RD has been staying over in this one spot...chasing everyone away from there if they come anywhere close to the area, even the Pacu and the Oscar. The RD does this body shake thing over in the area quite a bit too. Now I know when I had my African tank, they would do this kind of thing and the next thing I knew one was carrying eggs in it's mouth. Do Centrals do it this way also.

I'm a little confused though cause the RD (which I would assume the FM if they ARE trying to have babies) has this "thing" sticking out under her belly area. So is that the male??? I got a few pics of what they are doing and the "thing" on her/his underside.

 

[QueenslandeR]

looks like male and female to me, they might mate soon to by the looks of the females vent in the last pic which is usually a telltale sign, they dont mouthbrood though

 

[Lady G]

So that is the female with the "thing" on it??? What do they do if they don't mouth brood, just lay the eggs?

 

[QueenslandeR]

yea just lay em on a rock or something similar, then they'll become wrigglers then free swimming... the pair will pretty much own that section of the tank then, and become alot more aggressive

 

[Lady G]

OK, thank you!!

 

[Yoji_嬰孩]

I dont know too much about CA/SA cichlids but my two Midas's when I had them would lip lock all the time and both had the protrusions from their bellys. Both would dig little concave holes in my sandbed but they mainly did this to sleep in. They also both did the whole half body shake towards the tail region of their bodies as well. Just stating my personal exp. with my cichlids when I use to keep them. I provided pics of my old Midas's. You can see the protrusions I was talking about in the pics.






LoL, I guess im not being very helpful here huh!?

 

[japes]

Definitely sounds and looks like mating behavior. Hopefully they don't wreak too much havoc on the tanks other occupants.

 

[Lady G]

Will they eat the babies eventually, or do they stick with them? Do you think they both look like Midas/RD mixes? Their main differences are one has blue eyes the other had orange...and the RD one has a longer mouth.

 

[Fish on Fire]

Will they eat the babies eventually, or do they stick with them? Do you think they both look like Midas/RD mixes? Their main differences are one has blue eyes the other had orange...and the RD one has a longer mouth.

The babies will usually be safe with the parents until around 1" or so. But you can remove them as soon as they are free swimming if you want. How big is the tank might I ask? Tankmates? As to whether they are mixes or not . . . I can't tell, lol. Sorry.

 

[Lady G]

Well the tank is 150g tall, the tank mate are 1-11" Oscar, 4 JDs (ranging from about 4-7"), 1-8" Clown knife, 1-12" Pacu. Oh and a about 3-4" Rainbow shark in there too.