Efasciatus - Fighting or Mating

[Nick Park]

I've got three Heros Efasciatus in my 120g tank. I think two are male (they've got prominent squiggly lines on their cheeks) and one female. Since I got the tank (4 months ago) the female and larger male have hung out at one end of the tank while the smaller male has a hideout among rocks at the opposite end. Often, when he ventures out, the other 2 chase him back into his hideout, with the female being the most active bully.

Today, however, I'm seeing a major change in behaviour. The smaller male is no longer retreating, but is engaging in lengthy lip-locking with the female. All 3 fish are normally greedy eaters - but today these two ignored the food and continued their lip-locking (while the larger male scoffed all the food).

Can anyone help me understand the dynamics of what's going on here.

Are the squiggly lines on the cheeks of Efasciatus a reliable indicator for sexing? Is this aggression, with the smaller male deciding to fight rather than to keep running? Or is this more likely to be mating behaviour?

 

[tlindsey]

I've got three Heros Efasciatus in my 120g tank. I think two are male (they've got prominent squiggly lines on their cheeks) and one female. Since I got the tank (4 months ago) the female and larger male have hung out at one end of the tank while the smaller male has a hideout among rocks at the opposite end. Often, when he ventures out, the other 2 chase him back into his hideout, with the female being the most active bully.

Today, however, I'm seeing a major change in behaviour. The smaller male is no longer retreating, but is engaging in lengthy lip-locking with the female. All 3 fish are normally greedy eaters - but today these two ignored the food and continued their lip-locking (while the larger male scoffed all the food).

Can anyone help me understand the dynamics of what's going on here.

Are the squiggly lines on the cheeks of Efasciatus a reliable indicator for sexing? Is this aggression, with the smaller male deciding to fight rather than to keep running? Or is this more likely to be mating behaviour?
View attachment 1271874

ryansmith83

 

[ryansmith83]

Unfortunately their facial markings aren't very prominent in those pictures, but the dark colors, bright eyes, and white bellies are spawning colors. It's possible that a smaller male has decided to try and impress the female, which could result in a bolder attitude and the lip-locking you're seeing.

In general, Heros efasciatus are most easily sexed by the facial markings as you said. Females will have solid cheeks with no markings while males will have striation/spotting on the cheeks and across the bridge of the nose.

 

[neutrino]

Can't really see the facial markings, either.

If it was the two males, I'd say fighting, but lip locking is fairly common courting behavior between male and female ime. Seems to be a way of testing each other for fitness. I've had pairs do that the first few times they spawn but they eventually settle into being a cooperative pair without having to go through the drama each time, but I've also had pairs where it's just part of the routine. With two males in the tank, I wouldn't make a prediction on the outcome. Possible they pair up, possible the female decides she's not interested after all, possible the other fish decides to assert himself at some point if he's truly a male. Then again, occasionally a male doesn't seem that interested.

 

[Nick Park]

The males both have the prominent squiggly markings on the face (the bigger one is pictured below). The female has smooth unmarked cheeks.



The female has now set herself up among some rocks at one end of the tank.

 

[ryansmith83]

That darker fish is definitely ready to spawn. Are you sure she doesn't have eggs somewhere there?

 

[Nick Park]

That darker fish is definitely ready to spawn. Are you sure she doesn't have eggs somewhere there?

There's too many rocks and caves in the tank to see. I'd have to rip the setup apart to look for eggs.
Either way, I would expect the eggs or fry to get eaten up pretty rapidly. I got this tank a few months ago already full of fish and there's a long list of gluttonous potential egg-eaters including a bunch of mbuna, some jewel cichlids, a blood parrot, a synondontis and a black shark.

 

[neutrino]

Nice looking male. Yeah, typically I'd think she's guarding eggs if her behavior is consistent with the photo. Does she make attempts to keep other fish away? What's the male doing?

You're right about the tank coming to you with an odd assortment of fish. Mbuna and severums... hmm, okay. I'm not totally opposed to mixing continents, single tank in the house, someone likes what they like, water's not the issue some make it out to be, I've done it myself, especially growouts or extra fish from other tanks, but that's a new one. You're also right about egg stealers, synos are notorious. But it could be with enough of a tumble of rocks that some could survive.

 

[Nick Park]

Nice looking male. Yeah, typically I'd think she's guarding eggs if her behavior is consistent with the photo. Does she make attempts to keep other fish away? What's the male doing?

Yes, she tolerates the larger male coming close, but chases away all other fish. The two males are doing the vibrating thing next to each other, but no actual fighting. The smaller male is more excited.

You're right about the tank coming to you with an odd assortment of fish. Mbuna and severums... hmm, okay. I'm not totally opposed to mixing continents, single tank in the house, someone likes what they like, water's not the issue some make it out to be, I've done it myself, especially growouts or extra fish from other tanks, but that's a new one. You're also right about egg stealers, synos are notorious. But it could be with enough of a tumble of rocks that some could survive.

I've put in a lot of rocks with loads of tunnels, caves and hiding places. The mix of fish is certainly not would I have chosen (in fact when I agreed to buy the tank I wasn't planning on taking any fish at all - I was looking for a bigger tank to house a school of clown loaches). But no-one would take the fish so I took them with the tank rather than see them destroyed. I think the previous owner just bought what he thought would look nice at the time without thinking about interactions between fish in the future.

Most of the time it works pretty well with next to no aggression. But things got nasty when the 3 young jewel cichlids (at least 2 of them male) decided to treat each other as love rivals rather than brothers!

 

[neutrino]

Most of the time it works pretty well with next to no aggression. But things got nasty when the 3 young jewel cichlids (at least 2 of them male) decided to treat each other as love rivals rather than brothers!

Sometimes it's a good thing fish don't know the 'rules'.

Been a long time since I had any jewel fish, but they were unpredictable for me, some were reasonable citizens and some were real psychos.