Did my Breidohri pair up AGAIN??

[baldtaxguy]

If the tank size is too small, then the female will not be able to keep the male on perimeter duty and will continue to harass him.

What does this mean?

 

[ahud]

The female guards the fry, while the male patrols the perimeter of the territory. The male will swim back to the female and she will nudge him and send him back to the perimeter of the territory. Fascinating to see this behavior, one reason why I love Cryptoheros. When the male can't get far enough away from the female to be considered on "perimeter duty" then you can start having problems.

 

[ahud]

As I said my old jag pair stay together for 2 years then I separated them for months and tried to pair the female with a larger more impressive male and she had none of it and as soon as I gave in and reunited them the paired again and stayed together until he died of old age 5 years later. When they didn't have young they still were always at each others side following each other everywhere never splitting and claiming their own share of the tank. That was in a 150 gallon tank where they could at least stay several feet apart at all times and yet never did for more than several seconds. My current umbee pair are the same way but spawn so often it's hard to say if they would stay away from each other or not. But so far the bond seems to stay strong when not spawning. I have many more examples as well but feel my point is made and you can feel free to disagree with me if that's your opinion you are entitled to it but this is my point of view on the topic and there is no way to say what happens in the wild whether they bond for life often or spawn and separate I have never heard of any studies that focused hard enough on the topic to prove one way or the other so I am going off of what I have observed in domestic aquaria.


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I'm not sure how to answer this. You think that your female jag remembered her old mate so refused the new jag male? A more likely scenario is she seen the old male as a more fit mate. You are just describing what occurs in our tanks, the fish are unable to get away from each other. If you had a bigger tank, with multiple male and female jags I can assure you that the same males and females would not pair up every time.

Pairing behavior is well documented in the wild for some species. Have a look at some of the hobby friendly articles written by Juan Miguel. If I have time I will try to find you a few scholarly articles this week.

 

[rrcoolj]

The female guards the fry, while the male patrols the perimeter of the territory. The male will swim back to the female and she will nudge him and send him back to the perimeter of the territory. Fascinating to see this behavior, one reason why I love Cryptoheros. When the male can't get far enough away from the female to be considered on "perimeter duty" then you can start having problems.

On a level your right. Many CA cichlids breed during a "breeding season" where the fish will pair up then spawn. After this season is over they go their separate ways. They do not pair up for life in the wild like say some Tanganyika cichlids do when they do actually stay together their whole lives. That being said our fish tanks are not the wild. There are several factors to consider. You have to ask why do cichlids breed during a specific season. It maybe due to "optimal conditions" such as abundance of food and optimal(warmer) climate. Well in our tanks water parameters should be stable and our fish get plenty of food. So in a way its like it's the "breeding season" year round which might explain why centrals might have a better chance at a strong pair bond in our aquariums. Now I have no scientific data to back all this up this is just a hypothesis but I believe it is a pretty good one. I have seen many CA cichlids who do seem to have a connection to their mate like you would not see in the wild. Cichlids are adaptable after all.