Male Harassing Female, is this typical?

[coryjac0b]

So my pair of nics have dug a hole down the the egg crate which I assume is for them to spawn. I lined the bottom of the tank before I put sand in to protect the bottom of the tank from any shifting rocks. The past few days they would hang out together at the spot and be fine. Today, the male has started to chase and harass the female when she comes into his line of sight until she can get away. He then goes back to the general area in the tank where the nest/hole was dug out.

Is he ready to mate and she is not? Or is there something else going on? Am I causing stress by not having a flay bottom for them to nest?

 

[tlindsey]

If the male is ready to breed and the female isn't yes he will harass her. Sometimes males will kill the female so you may have to separate them with a divider for awhile.

 

[coryjac0b]

Is there a good amount of time to keep them apart for now? Also, is this going to be a typical thing that has to be done when they are trying to mate?

 

[philipraposo1982]

With my gt pair I went through the same stuff. but it was aggression mostly from my female post spawn. pre-spawn aggression was from both fish.

I ended up getting rid of my female because I didn't like the idea of so much aggression. From the time pre-spawn started till the fry eventually became food it was a total mess. the male would eventually win out because the fry became big enough to swim around and the female just couldn't protect them.

They were spawning every 1-1.5 months

 

[coryjac0b]

I knew there was some inherent aggression being cichlids, but wasn't sure how bad it would be. I check in on the tank from time to time on an IP cam I setup for that purpose. The female has been staying out of his sight most of the day, but the res is to low for me to see if any damage has been done. I'll have to assess when i get home and put up a divider if need be.

 

[philipraposo1982]

My male gt was confined to a small corner of my tank when I had my female.

I didn't won't a divider as I feel they are ugly and take away from the beauty of my tank. So the only option was to get rid of one of them. I think more people should consider this.

We talk about tank size all the time and then see many of the tank separated in half.. so much for enough swimming space.

 

[coryjac0b]

Yeah i feel the same way about the divider. I have something i can put up for a few days then try again and see what happens. If the aggression doesn't change ill have to get rid of one of them.

Thanks for the insight.

 

[aztsm]

I wish my GT would spawn already. My male is just a food whore. That's all he thinks about is food food food doesn't care about the 3 females in the tank. He chases them all away just to dominate the food

 

[coryjac0b]

Well i put in a divider and got the male on the side by himself. The female is now trying to get to him on the other side the divider and chasing away anything that gets close to the divider. Gonna give it a day or two and pull the divider and see what happens.

 

[duanes]

This is absolutely typical behaviour, for any species of cichlid.
In nature if a male and female meet, but one is not ready, the one that is not ready can easily swim away. This is not possible in the confines of a little box, so the weaker of the two is often killed.
This is why it is best to provide a male with 3 or more females to choose from.
Buying a pair is at best only a 50/50 chance (in reality less) they will be compatible.
But even after a seemingly successful spawn, the "happy home" can easily turn to a blood bath at the drop of a dime. When spawning cichlids seem to get a shot of hormones that prepare them to defend the spawn, but in aquariums there isn't an outlet, and in the small space often end up driving the male to take this extra aggression out on the female.
This is why many experienced breeders will always keep pairs divided to save the female, or if size permits, have a hole in the divided the female cab escape through if threatened.

to get my compatible nicaruaguense pair , I started with 8 juvies, grew then up together, and allowed the pair to form, keeping other females on the opposite side of a divider. This provided distraction for the male and his heightened spawning readiness hormones.

And after many spawns, I simply remove the male to another tank, to allow the female to raise the spawn un-molested.