Convict pair beating up on one another help.

[avengerz43]

So I set up a small tank for my 8 year old son (45gal) who wanted dune badass cichlids like daddy lol. So I chose convicts for him since I knew they didn't grow too large but had great personalities.

A couple weeks into it and I go into feed them one day and there's this mist like debris in the water low and behold it was a bunch of convict fry his two had spawned.

He had a small jag and another convict in with the pair and they were absolutely taking a beating from what I assumed to be the father male convict so I moved the poor guys out into another tank and left the mated pair in with the fry.

Everything was going fine until recently past 3 days I've noticed the smaller one who I can only assume is the female only because I've seen her grab a pellet of food and go down and feed the fry. I never actually saw her drop or anything prior to just waking up and finding the fry. And the other I assume to be male as he's larger and way more aggressive attacking your finger through the glass etc.

Anyways the female has been taking a thumping from the male the past few days, I was going to leave them be until the fry was old enough to survive on their own then I was going to seperate her as I don't want convict fry I'm going to give this batch to my lfs. But question is is it ok to go ahead and remove that aggressive male and leave her alone with the fry and when can i safely remove the fry? Thanks


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[duanes]

It's usually a good idea to remove the male (I'd remove the jag and other con, if you haven't already), if it is overly aggressive. If you don't, the female can end up dead.
When cichlids spawn, they gain a heightened set of hormones that fire them up to defend fry in nature, this is not subdued just because they are in aquariums, and without targets, the males can take out this extra aggression on females.
And later on, give the female a little time before putting back the male, after the fry are gone, spawning and raising fry is a heavy energy drain on the female.

 

[avengerz43]

Thank you for the reply I'm a complete noob at fish with fry lol. Yea I removed the other convict and small jag the first day I discovered the fry it was pretty easy to tell which 2 were the parents and which 2 fish weren't lol the other convict and jag were at the top of the tank under noticeable distress.

I'll remove what I hope is the male and watch the fry and female. I just didn't know if both were needed in raising the fry.

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