What happened to the love (Convict pair attacking each other)

[Piranha_Tim]

I have a 50 Gallon tank.
It has the following stock.

4 x Convict (1 male, 3 Females)
6 x Tiger Barbs
1 x Bushy Pleco

So I have air pumps in the tank but I have hidden the pipes so they come in at the back right corner of the tank and the piping is routed under the substrate so I don't have air tubing everywhere.

I wake up this morning looking at the tank and I am like "Oh whats the pleco doing there" (Quite the distance)

It wasn't the Pleco at all it was the female of the pair.

Worried she got stuck some how I free'd her but the second I did. The male came all the way across the tank and attacked her and she went back in. (She's hiding)

But I am confused ... What is happening here?

All the other 2 non-paired females, tiger barbs and pleco are business as usual they swim around and if they get to close the male lets them know.

But he will literally cross the tank to the other side to get her.

I will re-locate the female in another tank as soon as the tank is ready but why the paired female? (Ps. they have been paired for over 3 weeks now and successfully have babies in this enviroment)

 

[Piranha_Tim]

Ok the behavour has stopped.

The male looks as though he is parenting alone now and the females are all schooling (well hanging together) at the moment all the same colours again.

 

[TwistedPenguin]

Male Cons are sooo mean to their women lol They take "spousal abuse" to a new level. Be careful because all too often the male will kill her if she's not ready to spawn again.

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

He must have caught her cheating on him with the pleco...lol

 

[Fry]

He must have caught her cheating on him with the pleco...lol

lol...the sad part is that it's probably true, but he was diddling the tiger barbs!

But seriously, it's nothing to worry about. Typical convict behavior, it rarely ends in death. He'll get over it. Convict aggressiveness is overrated IMO.

 

[Piranha_Tim]

I would say convict aggression is very much over-rated.

When I first got the Convicts everyone told me I wouldn't be able to keep any other fish in the tank.

Truthfully now 6 Barbs and 1 Pleco later I haven't seen any actual contact.

The male will make sure others know not to go near the babies but I would say he asserts his territory more then actual contact attacking aggression.