dempseys

[semper fi]

the dempsey that i rescued was looking so good that today when i cleaned the tanks i decided to put her in with the community south/central americans that i have. also have two dempseys in there now. both of the dempseys in there are males. one is about a year old and the other is about two years old. everything seemed to be fine. just went down there and the older male has her beat up again. she is a larger female. probably about 1 1/2 to 2 years of age. i don't think she is ready to mate and the older male is. he doesn't beat up on anything else.

so here is the million dollar question. how can i introduce the female without the male pummeling her. could i condition her for breeding and then when she is ready reintroduce her back in the tank? i have her back in the hospital tank to let her heal. she is covered in bite marks and her fins are all nipped.

maggie

 

[cichlidmaster]

Well now....

I guess I can handle this one.

Mags, IMO the only way this is going to work is to take BOTH males out of the tank, place the female in the tank and in a few days put one male back in.

Two males and one female is no good. Even if the male did not beat up on her, he would most definitly beat up/kill the other male.

Remember why I place the trio I have in a different tank when my first pair began to spawn??

Then again, nothing may change the males attitude towards the female.

IME Dempsey's spawn when they are ready. I don't believe conditioning the female is a viable option.

CM

 

[semper fi]

that is the crazy thing the two of them hang out together. the little one swims around with the older one like he is a freshman hanging out with a senior! the two of them were ganging up on her but mostly the older one. like the little one was just doing it cause his buddy was. i'd like to get them to pair off. maybe i will just have to sit the two down and have a little birds and bees talk with them!

would feeding her a higher protein diet to fatten her up help? (that sound is me getting out the hotdogs and dog food! heehee j/k cm) give her more weight to throw around. i am worried that i put her in the tank too soon. she was not totally healed. now she is going to be gunshy around him.

maggie