Male Harassing Female, is this typical?

[coryjac0b]

Ideally I would have liked to gone the more natural route, but I don't see nics to often. Hindsight being 20/20 i should have gotten all three that were at the LFS. I am going to go back to the LFS today and see if they have another female. If not I will leave the divider up another day and try to re-introduce them to each other. If she is still not ready I will re-home one of them.

They are to similar size to make a hole for her to pass back and forth.

Thanks for your reply duanes , I appreciate your knowledge.

I'm not looking to become a breeder, just experience the breeding ritual and raising of fry, but not at the expense of the male killing the female.

 

[neutrino]

I wouldn't say all cichlid species. With some pairing cichlids-- angelfish, discus, severums, guianacara, some types of geos, even some green terrors I've had, dividers are not needed and would be counter-productive, as good pairs will exhibit compatible, bonded behavior that helps them work as a team. Some species, it may just depend on the pair, but some species need the time together to go through the process of forming a good bond, during which time some engage in mock fighting to test the fitness of the prospective partner or they might also fuss while working out disagreements over nesting sites. Some species or pairs may take several spawns to get the process down, and need time to settle in as a cooperative pair. Dividing some of these types would only short circuit the process. All of this can vary by species or particular pair. With some types, how peaceful or how rough they are depends on the pair, but rarely does one kill the other, except maybe in too small a tank or possibly if a pair is so incompatible and you leave them together so long that one stresses the other to death, etc.

Then there are harem breeders, like Malawi cichlids, frontosa, etc. (all of which I've bred) where some males are mean and others not at all, depending on species or individual. Especially with frontosa, things will simply vary by group, a lot depending on the alpha male breeder, which can be mean or mild. But you'd hardly want to divide these fish, they need the interaction as part of the process.

There are Tanganyikan cichlids, like emperor cichlids, for example, where pairs cooperate very well in defending nests and fry and you'd hardly want to separate pairs with a divider, as it would stress them and disturb their natural behavior. Others, like some Neolamprologus and related fish, form cooperative social groups where some in the group are the primary breeders and others act as 'helpers'.

Bottom line is there's a lot of diversity in cichlid behavior and breeding them depends which species you're talking about. There's no one single model that's typical for all cichlids.

 

[coryjac0b]

neutrino Now that you say that, I didn't really notice damage to female, scuffs or fin damage. They may just be working it out. I will try and re-introduce and see how things go.

 

[neutrino]

Haven't kept nics personally, but have a friend who loves nics and she kept pairs together with a sight break in order to keep the two pairs in the same tank, or kept nic pairs with other combinations of fish, but she didn't divide individual pairs. So, apparently it can be done (keeping a nic pair without dividing them). Maybe it's a sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't deal with nic pairs, I don't know. Or it could be, like with some other species, it depends on tank size, individual pair, etc. Like I say, I haven't personally kept nics, but I know what I've seen someone else do.

My main thing was you can't generalize the behavior or recommendations for some cichlid species to all other cichlids. Some species get along just fine kept together as a pair. Some, like discus, can be alone together in even a small tank; others, like severums, it's a matter of having a compatible pair in a large enough tank-- (I've kept both).