Laetacara araguaiae locking jaws together

[jaylach]

At least one common name is Smile Dwarf Cichlid. They are South American.

While I have had many cichlids in the past I have never homed this species. Over the last several days I have seen two out of the four I got locking their jaws together. These are juveniles just starting to mature enough to start getting iridescent coloring around the lower jaw and gills.

These two will go face to face and grab each others lower jaw. Neither fish has shown any sign of damage and feed together when fed.

Would I be correct in thinking this is a dominance thing where they are setting up their hierarchy to see which will be dominant or is this something to worry about? Since there has been no harm done I don't think there is a real issue but I have seen some cichlids fight and some will attack the lower jaw. If one can break the jaw of the other problem solved as the injured fish can't eat and will end up out of the picture.

 

[GaryE]

It is dominance, sparring, testing of strength, but it can go wrong with injuries and may intensify as they get older and the stakes get higher. I always took such sights as a warning that I was going to need a second place to home the loser, once age escalated it.

 

[jaylach]

Figured that it was dominance.