Male Beating Up Female

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moosemj

moosemj

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Oct 27, 2012
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I'm a bit concerned, as the title indicates the male is beating up the female. Fins are a bit damaged an her coloration has changed. Keeps chasing her around my driftwood, should I be concerned and separate them? Will they eventually mate? Any suggestions.

Here is a pic of the maleImageUploadedByMonsterAquariaNetwork1388354482.211604.jpg

Will get pic of female later


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Nice looking ZZ male. You need to immediately divide the tank in half with a drilled piece of plexi glass and put the male on one side and the female on the other. After they get used to seeing each other you put the base of a clay pot in the tank, remove the divider, and then see if they will pair up and breed for you. Her colors are changing because she is stressed. Flowerhorns can be ridiculously aggressive and very quickly kill there "mates". Has the female always been in the same tank as him? Is it a community tank?
 
They have always been in the tank together without incident. They are in the tank with stingrays, peacock bass, catfish, etc. I put the female in another tank temporarily. Gotta figure out if I want to separate them, try to breed them or what. Just don't want anything getting hurt.

Does the tank have too much going on for them? Should I move them permanently? All suggestions welcome.


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Flowerhorns are famous for that and most of the time just kill their mate. Happens with lots of aggressive cichlids when they want to breed. Not now I have a headache just doesn't seem to cut it in the fish world.
 
Well Im glad that you moved the female to another tank. Since they have always been together without incident it sounds like the male wants to breed and the female does not. Honestly in a BIG community tank, like you have, the female might not feel comfortable producing young in that busy of an environment with so many LARGE and powerful tank mates. If you give her some time to heal up in the new tank you could try to move the male in with her to see if they will breed. Keep in mind that if they breed you will have 300-1500 babies that you will need to feed and find a home for. So many cichlid hobbyists are not ready for the massive amount of fry they get when their fish breed. Breeding is an amazingly fun part of this hobby but you need to be ready for it.
 
Have a male srd flowerhorn I recently introduced a female into the tank with he’s about 4 inch’s and she,s around 3 inch’s. The male is super excited chasing her everywhere doing his little dance to impress her but she is constantly running away hasn’t lost any of her colour and other then the relentless chasing he isn’t hurting her at all is this normal?

1F09350F-86A3-4A22-9D8E-5ED9FB997498.jpeg 4FAAA013-D0E2-4D84-92C1-1A01DC6974E8.jpeg
 
Sounds like your Male wants to breed but the female isn't ready as yet.

Should I move them permanently?
Click to expand...
If you want to breed them, you probably have to.
Most cichlid breeders keep a hiding place large enough for the female, where the male cannot fit into. That way if the male gets too aggressive with her, she can hide from him.
Its often been the case with cichlids that the male ends up killing his mate (sometimes even after the pair has had multiple successful spawn), so I recommend you find such a solution.


he isn’t hurting her at all is this normal?
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Yes. But if he does start to hurt her or she loses color, then it is time to seperate them.
 
I’ve decided to add a barrier to separate them now the male is moving rocks on his side and they both swim back and fourth staring at each other shimmering.
 
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