carpintis in full breeding dress at 1.5" wtf?

[Stramn]

Why is one of my 1.5" carpintis in full breeding dress all the time? Is it stressed?

 

[Chrisplosion]

I had a female that size breed before. What other fish are in the tank.

Sent from my MOTWX435KT

 

[Stramn]

The tank is a grow out. Right now its got

2 green terrors
3 petsmart kamfas
1 festae
1 black nasty
2 carpintis... Of which one is in full dress the other isn't
9 convicts
2 jade green dragon x blue dragom fh

All fish are between 1-3" SL

The tank is a 60 breeder

All fish are on a beefheart, brineshrimp, NLS, massivore, bloodworm mixture. I blend it all up, and freeze it into cubes that I drop in the tank which they devour lol

 

[Aquamojo]

It happens. Fish can breed...or even attempt to breed...even at that size. Likely it is an attempt to create a bond with another fish in our tank.

 

[Stramn]

Thanks for the input mojo. I think its a hormone problem in the tank. The cons are all laying eggs and paired off. Maybe that much love has the lil escondido excited

 

[Azedenkae]

Aye they can crossbreed, and the hormones have an effect on each other. A few days ago my carpintis also turned full breeding dress when I added a male convict, and that triggered a chain reaction where my red forest jewels turned breeding colors as well. Took quite a few days for it all to wear off.

Yep. Hormones in a tank that size can make things go ape-. And seems that carpintis is affected the most by convicts out of all cichlids. Not sure why, but that's what it seems.

 

[Taiko]

I wish mine would breed. My male is almost 6 inches and is constantly tring to get his female "in the mood", but alas....she's not having it yet. She's around 3-4 inches.

 

[cavamart]

Carpintis don't go into "full breeding dress" unless guarding fry. Females especially get dark with aggression/displaying moods. At 1.5" my female below always was in the middle of everything and got dark, but it took another year for her to breed and show her colors like below. Not saying Carpintis can't breed that small, but it's most likely the harmones in the tank unless you are seeing dropped tubes and even then they don't get full breeding colors until they are on fry.

 

[Stramn]

Well my lil carpintis is in the colors of that second pic lemme try to get a pic of it.

The fish are in that tank temporarily until my 270 finishes cycling. Then I can move my stock from my 90 to my 270 and some of the grow outs to the 90

The 90 grow out list will be

1 festae
1 petsmart kamfa
1 green terror
1 carpintis escondido
1 turquoise Texas "cazones"
2 jade green x blue dragon flowerhorn.

Maybe that will fix things. But big tanks take a while to cycle properly