Keyhole advice wanted

[suemack]

I got a pair of keyholes, they're 3yrs old now and both females.....they lay eggs together They get on fine, they've always lived together. In another tank I have another pair of keyholes (about 18mnths old) I presume they're both males as they don't lay eggs!! Wouldn't it be luverley if they came with little m/f tags when they were babies

Would it work to put the 2 males into the female tank, or would I be better separating out the 2 pairs. Tank is big enough, other occupants in there are cories. Really want to get this right cos they're not easy to catch!!

thanks
sue

 

[dothedew]

Well, keyholes aren't like cons. They like to pick their mate, not just be set up.

 

[freddyk]

You can introduce the males and see how they get along - let them form the pairs on their own. Generaly starting out with extra females is best, so that they can choose their own mate. The good news is keyholes are not very aggressive, so if you notice the males being overly aggressive toward the females you can remove them with no damage done.

 

[suemack]

Thanks for your replies I'll let you know how it all goes

sue

 

[Griz]

I would put the nicest of the 2 males in with the two females and let him chose a mate. The other male gets the consolation prize!

 

[suemack]

What I ended up doing was putting the 2 males in with the females the shekeys did not approve!! Even though I'd moved things round in the tank, redecorated their area they were not happy......and were quite prepared to let the intruders know!

No wounds or missing bits so left them as they were for 24 hrs, redecorated the tank again to see if that would settle the girls down...................but no!!

One of the shekeys seemed to tolerate the bigger male a little better so caught her and her 'new friend' and moved them into a different tank, and left the remaining pair where they were. Now that there's not 2 onto 1 as the females were doing, things have settled and the littlest male is following the biggest female round he likes her...............and she's mostly tolerating him

Amazing personalities these cichlids.....I was a confirmed guppyoholic till I rescued a tiny pair of skinny keyholes from a tank where they weren't being looked after. Had to get a bigger tank for them as they grew, my biggest tank at that time was a 18x12x12 inch................now there's 3 bigger tanks, 4 keyholes, 2 rams, 2 cockatoo cichlids, 1 apisto, baby kribs and a partridge in a pear tree

sue

 

[freddyk]

Amazing personalities these cichlids.....

Indeed, there's no going back from cichlids!

Glad you worked it out, a little experimentation goes a long way!

 

[snowyangel]

Oh im inlove keyholes! I have 7 of these curious little fellows. I've never had any problems at all from them. They're my favorite, non-picky cichlid. I really dunno what my sexes are, but i guess i soon will find out. By the way, what colour were their eggs? Black? I keep getting reappearing black dots(or eggs) on my driftwood.

 

[Griz]

Happy to hear that things are going well. Good luck!