Male Firemouth Chasing Female

[windtrancer]

i have a male and female firemouths, approximately the same size at 3".

the male has established his territory in a hole in the rockwork and chases the female whenever she is too close to it.

is this normal firemouth behavior? will the female get hurt?

 

[freddyk]

The female will be fine as long as he lets off the aggression once she gets chased away. If the chasing is relentless and she's looking very stressed or showing injuries then you should seperate them either with a divider or into seperate tanks. It is normal behavior, it is likely they haven't paired off yet, especially if you recently put just a male and a female together.