Nicaraguan cichlid mating behavior? With an Oscar?

[kmaben]

soooo......Have a Nicaraguan cichlid (mimi) about 4inches and I'm pretty sure she's a she in a 90 with two oscars (blackie and ralph) and a 4inch rainbow shark (pierre). Oscars are 7-8 inches and I'm thinking they're both male. They're upgrading to a 210 in two weeks so dont feel bad for them. However she's been in their tank about two weeks. Oscars have been in theirs months. Blackie lives in LaLa land and ignores everything in the tank unless it bothers him. Ralph is a crotchety bully.

Mimi carved out her territory and defends it pretty aggressively. Flared gills and ramming mostly against Ralph. Blackie and pierre figured out not to go near her little cave.
However tonight she has been all over ralph, flaring gills, backing up to him, bumping him but not ramming and following him through all the levels of the tank. If she gets too close to Blackie he chases her off but then she's right back on Ralph. If Ralph gets to close to her territory she just sits in her little house and pouts until he leaves then follows him all over again. No lip locking and Ralph weirdly is tolerating her behavior. She's been pissy at Blackie and Pierre still. It doesn't seem mean but could this be mating behavior? Or is she trying to establish herself as the alpha?

I checked her little hideouts and found no buried eggs.

 

[ryansmith83]

I doubt it's spawning behavior. When you introduce new cichlids they will flare and tail slap to try and establish their place in the pecking order. I'd guess the nic is trying to assert its dominance so the oscars do not see it as a weak fish and try to attack/hurt it.

 

[viejafish]

I used to have a female nic which would flare gill and shake head with a male African cichlid as if she were attempting to breed with him. It's common to have a single female to show breeding behavior with any fish in the tank when she is ripe. Many female cichlid will even lay eggs alone.

 

[kmaben]

It's just odd as mating behaviour looks so much like dominating behavior. She is a very odd little thing for sure.

I was curious if she could lay eggs alone and been keeping an eye out so she doesn't get over aggressive.