Firemouths not breeding + how to form a new pair

[Cichlid_Guy]

Hi, I have a Firemouth pair which is spawning very infrequently. They spawn maybe once or twice a year and they have never had fry, only eggs (eggs looked fertilized and the parents probably ate the fry when it hatched.) I think there is something wrong with the female because her egg laying tube is always partly down and she looks like she wants to spawn but nothing usually happens. I have gotten new Firemouths, from which I will try to raise a new mate for my current male. The problem is that the male is 6 inches and the new Firemouths are not even an inch long. I am quite certain that one of the small Firemouths is a female.

Should I keep all the Firemouths together until the small ones are sexually mature and then separate my current pair and introduce the new female to my old male? (separation would happen with a divider so the fish would still know of each others existence) I know Firemouths usually mate for life but could my plan work out?

 

[Ogertron3000]

Not sure if that would work or not. How many new firemouths did you get? It's probably better and more likely to let a fresh pair form naturally out of the new batch. 6 is meant to be pretty much guaranteed to get a pair statistically.
Another trick worth trying is to seperate your existing pair with the divider and get the female nice and fat and in breeding condition with good food and extra clean water and then reintroduce them to each other. A break and recuperation may do the trick.

 

[Cichlid_Guy]

I got 4 firemouths and one of them has died. 2 of them are hanging together and they are flaring at each other. I believe that they would eventually form a breeding pair. But my adult male Firemouth is my favorite fish and a very gorgeus specimen, so I would like to get him spawning. While waiting for the small ones to grow, I will separate and fatten up the adult female like you suggested.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

How big is your tank?
I only ask as thorichthys do much better in groups and this is how they live in the wild.
I've kept many thorichthys over the years and have had multiple pairs spawning a few inches apart in the same tank.
It's really interesting to watch the interaction between the guarding pairs.
If your tank is 75gallons or over I would keep them all together and let them sort it out.
Here are some thorichthys helleri I had. I kept them in a group of 12 and had many many spawns.

 

[Cichlid_Guy]

Nice pics! My tank is 140 gallons, but I also have other cichlid pairs (Sajicas and Blue Acaras.) The male Firemouth is quite aggressive against other firemouths.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

They can be in small numbers. If you have about 8, they normally settle down and do well.
I had 6 firemouths in a 7x2x2. All they did was chase each other. I added more to make a total of 20 and they did really well and I had several breeding pairs come from it.