Aggressive Male

[ricko10]

My first pair of HM bred very easily. They were never aggressive with each other and usually spawned within 2 hours of being together. However my new pair the male seems very aggressive. She has been in her chimney for 24 hrs and all he is doing is constantly trying to get her. He is not bothering in building a nest and the one he had he broke it apart. Does anyone have any experiance of this?
thanks
oh and they have been conditioning for about 2 1/2 weeks now on white worm, brine shrimp and frozen mosquito larvae. She is nice and round with great breeding bars.

 

[Bubblenester]

Try letting her out and see what happens (keep a close eye on them and make sure that there are lots of hiding places in the tank)

I've had some really aggressive males that I didn't think would breed, and they were pretty mean to the female for the first few minutes she was out, but once they chased her a while and she found a hiding place, they went right over to start building a nest and everything was fine after that. Maybe a little more biting and chasing than usual, so I just kept an eye on them. I haven't had a fish killed or seriously injured while spawning yet *knocks on wood*

 

[leec]

Hi Ricko10

I had a male who spent two days straight trying to get to the female in the chimney every time, without building a nest. He was just supereager to breed. Whenever i let her out he would chase, eventually breed in a few hours, and then go super-daddy and take care of the eggs and fry. It was always harder work for him though because he was starting on the nest with a load of eggs sinking/floating, but it always worked out. He even kept full batches of fry alive without bubbles, they just lodged themselves (with his help) in water miniscus beside the empty styrofoam nest or along the glass. I started leaving the female out immediately with him as I knew he wasnt going to go make a nest, and it was always okay. After each spawning he became lax and let the females help with egg collecting. Hopefully your guy will be the same - it may take a complete loss of the eggs the first time for him to cop on and resort to a nest the next time. Best of luck

Lee