Breeding Behavior in peacock cichlids

[Samt123]

Hey everyone,

I posted under breeding hoping that I would get some help understanding how long it would take until my peacocks start trying to breed as I've only had them in a tank for about 5 days now. After eating breakfast and looking at my tank, my questions were answered. It took 5 days for the male to start corralling the females and trying to breed. Unfortunately, after hours of watching from across the room, making sure I don't do anything to scare them, none of the females decided to mate with him. One went down and they danced a bit but she soon after went back up to the top of the tank. Does anyone have any idea as to why this happens? Is there anything I could do? I rearranged the tank today after the male gave up and did a water change with the water 1-2 degrees colder to imitate rain. Is there anything more I can do?

 

[Milingu]

They need some time. Not every mating attempt is successfull.
Age and experience of the fish plays also a role.
They need to be mature enough to be able to reproduce. And they might meed a few attempts to not swallow the eggs.


Keep the females well fed so they can produce eggs.

 

[DJRansome]

I've had mature fish in a tank with ideal conditions for a year before they started spawning. They definitely need time...it is usually a month before fish in a new tank even feel comfortable.

The fact that the females are at the top of the tank is a concern. This is a clue that they are being harassed.

What are the dimensions of your tank? What species? How many males and females of each species. How old are they or how big if you don't know the age.

 

[Samt123]

I've had mature fish in a tank with ideal conditions for a year before they started spawning. They definitely need time...it is usually a month before fish in a new tank even feel comfortable.

The fact that the females are at the top of the tank is a concern. This is a clue that they are being harassed.

What are the dimensions of your tank? What species? How many males and females of each species. How old are they or how big if you don't know the age.

Hello!

first off thanks for the reply I greatly appreciate it! Maybe I’m a bit eager to have them start breeding as this is the goal of my project. This is a first that I’m doing this and I want to make sure that I don’t offend or make it seem like I’m arguing but I’m inclined to disagree that there is a problem with my females being at the top of the tank. There is no aggression in the tank what’s so ever on a normal basis, the only aggression that was there was when the male has started trying to breed. I’ve seen and can link you to multiple YouTube links that state and show that the first stage in peacock breeding is the male knowingly corralling the females to the top, I’ve seen it a bunch of times and that how I was able to initially know my male was trying to breed.I’ve listen out my tank and all the specifics in another post that I made and I’ve asked a few breeders and they said the set up was good. I do really appreciate your knowledge about how long it might take, I’ll try to be a bit more patient with these guys, it was just that the male was trying to breed so I thought something might have been going on.

 

[Samt123]

Just an update:

came home from work today to find a female holding eggs.

thanks for all the advice, I was ready to start waiting but it looks like I’d didn’t have to!