Maingano Change In Personality..

[electric yellow]

Im wondering whether one of our Maingano's is carrying eggs...

We have an assorted cichlid tank.

Stock:
2x Maingano
2x Convicts
1x Electric Yellow Lab
1x Electric Blue female

plus two more cichlids that i cant remember the name of. They are about 2 inches and have a blueish purplish body with yellow fins.

Lately our Mainganos have been dancing around in circles, chasing round in circles. Yesterday and today we noticed one of them has dug a massive hole in the back corner of the tank nearlly all the way down to the glass and is hovering around that hole. Everytime one of the other fish go near it they chase it away.

Is it carrying eggs? I have no idea how to tell...i assumed they were mouth breeders. Do they drop them?

All the fish in the tank are about 2inches each so are adult grown in size. The ph is 7.8 and they all get along fine as a fishy family.

We have a seperate tank running which has 4feeder fish in it to keep the bacteria going and currently a recovering male electric blue. There is lots of covering in the tank. Theres plants, an extra internal filter, sand they shuffle around and a massive ship wreck also a tunnel and a few rocks scattered around the place.

What is the egg process etc??

Here some pics...

(the plants are more grown since i took this pic..)

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[electric yellow]

I just read this in the egg spot thread at the top of this section...

hen a mouth brooder spawns the male will chose females to spawn with. he will dig a birthing pit to impress the females. he will flash himself to them, fight off other males and may even bully her into spawning. when the female is ready, her and the male will go to the birthing pit. the female will lay the eggs, a few at a time, and the male will fertilize them. the female will swim directly behind the male picking up the eggs and sperm taking it into her mouth.

Maybe this is whats happening??

 

[darrel69]

Hi... yea, sounds like they could be mating.

Here is a read you may be interested in...

Mouthbrooders

So Your Malawi Cichlids Are Breeding!

Good Luck

 

[electric yellow]

Awesome!!

I have the lights off and the (what we assume is the male) is still hovering in the 'pit'.

 

[kj23502]

That's really cool they are breeding

However, you say you have convicts in there Those are south american cichlids actually and it's generally not a good idea to keep them together.

Good luck with the fry

 

[darrel69]

However, you say you have convicts in there Those are south american cichlids actually and it's generally not a good idea to keep them together.

Thats what i thought.. i dont know much about american cichlids but im guessing they're not called 'convicts' for nothing.. lol

 

[kj23502]

However, you say you have convicts in there Those are south American Cichlid actually and it's generally not a good idea to keep them together.

Thats what i thought.. i don't know much about American Cichlid but I'm guessing they're not called 'convicts' for nothing.. lol

LOL...they are jail striped...black and white vertical stripes.

If those 2 are a pair they can get really hyper aggressive at mating time. Literally chasing everything they see

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/a_nigrofasciatus.php

 

[electric yellow]

That's really cool they are breeding

However, you say you have convicts in there Those are south american cichlids actually and it's generally not a good idea to keep them together.

Good luck with the fry

Yes they are black and grey stripped. They are two girls. All our cichlids have been in the tank together since they were babies. Our lfs is shocked we have the yellow lab in there to. Its a perfectly harmonius tank. I think that is only because they all came at the same time an have lived together for the last 10mnths. We only have one male. And hes the Mangiano. The rest are girls. The electric blue male is in a different tank due to his 'emoness'

People repeatedly tell me...oh no you cant have africans with south americans. no no no. They will attack each other...

Maybe mine are just...different hahaha

No real aggression. Apart from at feeding time I think the multiple hiding holes helped too. Also have four feeder fish in there. They were suppose to eat em...but didnt so they swim around too.

I think we will just wait to see what happens with the fry for the first time. Maybne if she has a 2nd batch we will consider raising them.