Fighting Pair Of German Blues?

[guppiegirlie]

Hi guys, its been quite some time since I last posted on here.

My tank has been coming along just fine until just recently...

I have a beautiful pair of German blue rams who have spawned three times now, but unfortuntley have never got past the egg stage.

Their first spawn I stupidly mistook for sand on a leaf and wiped them off! (Lesson well and truely learned from that mishap!)

Second spawn we moved house, so eggs were again disrupted and eaten.

Third spawn was only a couple of weeks ago, but they were in the process of laying as I was doing a water change! So when I got up the next day, the eggs had gone.

Now since their last attempt my female has been chasing my male away. She just won't entertain him at all. As soon as she sees him she chases him, his colours are slightly faded and his stress stripes are very visible.

I've had a little change around, scapewise, and added quite a lot of new plants, plenty more hiding places etc and he seems to be less stressed.

Is this normal behaviour for a fairly settled pair? And will they get along again?

They're my pride and joy!! I don't want anything to happen to them which could be avoided.

Any help and advice is greatly welcomed!

 

[Byron]

All cichlids, at least the neotropical species, must bond as a pair.  I used to believe this was for life, but some cichlids authorites have indicated not necessarily, that the fish can change their minds along the way, so I accept that this happens.  In your situation, the female has apparently decided she has no luck with this particular male, and wants to be rid of him.  Whether this will alter in time, I cannot say, but I would venture that once trouble begins with cichlids or similar fish, it usually doesn't reverse.
 
I had something of a similar experience with a pair of Bolivian Rams, Mikrogeophagus altispinosus.  I introduced a lovely female to the tank housing the male (and over one hundred other characins and corys) and to my surprise, within a couple weeks they spawned.  The female however drove the male away as she guarded the eggs, which disappeared on about the third night, devoured probably by the corys who are nocturnal.  They made up and spawned again, and after the eggs disappeared during the night a day or two later, the male got aggressive.  A third and fourth spawn followed, but after that the male had obviously had enough and killed the female.  The continual back-and-forth of the pair caused me to assume this would just go on with eventual success, but I was wrong.
 
To your situation, it might be best to separate the two .  You could try this for a few weeks, then re-introduce them, and see what happens.  If this still fails, permanent separation would seem the best solution.  Remember that the fish must select their mates, so if you decide to simply replace either one of them, it might not work.
 
Byron.

 

[Akasha72]

What Byron describes has happened with my laetacara curvicep dwarf cichlids and with my new angelfish pair.
With curviceps - they had several spawnings and got their eggs to free swimming stage several times but the free swimming fry only lasted about 3 or 4 days. Their number would slowly decline with each night. After a while my female rejected the male and went and hid in the plants and ignored all his advances. He was still love struck with her but she was having none of it. Eventually she jumped out of my tank when I wasn't around and died and so now my male is on his own. He's been pining for her ever since. I doubt he will survive much longer as he's become very shy and stressed lately.
 
I now have a pair of angels who chose one another. The first spawn lasted 2 days before they left the eggs unattended and they got eaten. I decided to move them into a tank on their own for the next spawn but he didn't fertilize the eggs and then ate them when the tank lights went out. This happened 4 times until I decided to give up on them and move them back to my main tank. My male now has no interest in spawning at all. My female is wanting to spawn and tries to bully him into it but he just goes and hides from her in my plants.
I have actually been considering re-homing my female and just keeping my male but as I can't predict how he will react to this I'm unsure of what to do. There is no sign of them fighting though. They just 'bicker' a bit.
 
Cichlids are funny when it comes to choosing a mate and I also believed they paired up for life but it would seem that is not the case at all.

 

[Brodeur30]

Female cichlids can be funny. I have 3 female convicts and i tried introducing a male jack dempsey/convict hybrid and the 3 of them ganged up on him

 

[Akasha72]

this is why I keep saying there's no such thing as 'just a fish'. Anyone who keeps fish such as cichlids can see they have personalities 

 

[guppiegirlie]

Thanks guys.

I'll try separating them for a few weeks and reintroducing later, she seems to tolerate him but only just.

Hopefully this will work. Fingers crossed!

And Akasha I totally agree, my two have very strong personalities. They're fab little fish to keep and certainly are little characters!