Male Dovii Pairing Issues

[Eldeon]

Got myself a really nice Male dovii yesterday to try and pair up with my female dovii.
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A little background, I got her when she was only 1 inch or less a lil fry. I got 2 of em and at the time she hit 2-3 inches she killed her sibling which at that time no way to tell if it was a male or female.

So eventually as she started getting bigger I put her into my 180gal (6x2x2) tank that had
1x Jag
1x Golden Jag
1x Texas
2x Jack Dempsey
1x Jewel
4x Clown loaches
1x Normal pleco

All of em slowly grew out nicely together and no she's around 7 inches nice and thick with great colors for a female, yellowish with hints of blue at the front. Not as many spots as a male so confirmed female. I didn't wanna take the chance of popping him alone with the female in case he decides to go bonkers, so I put him in while the others were in there. The moment he came in he locked jaws with the big jag which is about same size as him. He then started chasing and attacking every one of em except the female.

Desperation, decided to clear out every fish in the 180 gal and leave just the male & female in there.


Here's the main issue:
There's plenty of hiding space, driftwood & pipes. Issue I'm having is he sometimes is nice to her but at times he will chase her from one end to another until she hides then he stops. Any idea if this will get worse over time or will it improve as time goes by?


I totally understand mistakes were made just wanna make em right now. The rest of the fish are totally ok and have gone to a wonderful home.

 

[Mitchell The Monster]

As you probably know now, just adding the opposite sex to any species of cichlid is a huge gamble. Hard to determine if it will get better or not but it is possible to just be the male asserting dominance. If he actually starts beating the female too bad then I recommend adding a divider to the tank or re-homing one of the two.

 

[Eldeon]

As you probably know now, just adding the opposite sex to any species of cichlid is a huge gamble. Hard to determine if it will get better or not but it is possible to just be the male asserting dominance. If he actually starts beating the female too bad then I recommend adding a divider to the tank or re-homing one of the two.

So far she hasn’t had any damages l, still eats. Good sign I guess. When I woke up in the morning noticed male hiding in the pipe but female was roaming about, might be sleeping.

Such an off behaviour will continue to monitor.
Just wondering if anyone faced something similar?

 

[Mitchell The Monster]

So far she hasn’t had any damages l, still eats. Good sign I guess. When I woke up in the morning noticed male hiding in the pipe but female was roaming about, might be sleeping.

Such an off behavior will continue to monitor.
Just wondering if anyone faced something similar?

Yep, just keep a close eye. Make sure to have a back up plan if things go south. When I used to breed severums I would see simular behaviors during breeding time.

 

[PYRU]

He'll probably kill her at that rate. Usually you put up a divider with a hole just big enough for her to escape

 

[Eldeon]

He'll probably kill her at that rate. Usually you put up a divider with a hole just big enough for her to escape

So far they're doing well. She naps in the pipes while he roams around. She comes out to grab some food he sees her kind goes to her but not aggressively.

Good thing is they have many hiding spots so hopefully, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Yep, just keep a close eye. Make sure to have a back up plan if things go south. When I used to breed severums I would see simular behaviors during breeding time.

For sure. Thanks for the advice =)

 

[phreeflow]

He'll probably kill her at that rate. Usually you put up a divider with a hole just big enough for her to escape

+1 agreed

This always worked well for me. Make a divider with a hole just large enough for the female to enter. Leave larger male on one side of tank and put the female in the opposite side. When she is ready, she will be enter the male’s side but if he gets too aggressive, she can always retreat back to her side but he won’t be able to follow her. It’ll keep her safe and she can call the shots