Parachromis Cross-Breeding Homosexuality?

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C

Cichlidholic

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 23, 2009
108
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Bay Area, CA
Hi all,

Some of you may remember that I had a breeding pair of RTM. Well the male decided to divorce the female so I decided to start over. A few months back I restarted my tank with a handful of various baby cichlids...just to see which one turned out prettiest.

In my tank (among other things) I have what I believe to be a male dovii and a male motaguense. Yes long term this will have to be remedied -BUT- it seems that both of them have taken a liking to one another and have paired up. They are head-shaking, digging, cleaning rocks and HUMPING rocks!:screwy:

Has anyone else out there seen this cross-breeding homosexual behavior before? I even have a female RTM in there so I'm a bit extra confused.

I have included pics of the 2 fish in question. Am I wrong about the sex of these two parachromis?

Thanks for your help!

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It's pretty common in cichlids. I have females spawn all the time together. My wild notatus females lay eggs together, and I used to have female discus and angels pair off constantly. I had one pair of angels that would actually have a "threesome" with a male, then they'd chase him off and raise wrigglers/fry together.

I've never really seen the behaviors displayed in males, but I guess it would be more subtle since there are no eggs. Courting behavior in males is very similar to dominance/territorial displays among males, so it'd be hard to say which was which.
 
Here are more pics of my assumed male Dovii. I think he looks strongly male...but he does hide a lot for a male. Pics wash out is strong blue in the face and fins, but isn't the strong spotting in the fins and tail an indication of male?

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It happens sometimes. Sometimes my male fish would chase off a female fish to bond with another male lol

right now, my fh male is ok with the festae male next to him but he chases the female festae off. The male Festae chases her off too. But the two males are ok being next to each other.

this is two males. They were like that for a few days. Then the big one found out it was a dude and whooped the little one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6***YPjs4iI
 
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