# Well, that was odd



## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

Okay, so October 2009 I bought my first cichlids (unless you count angels, but that was when I was younger and didn't research anything): four convict cichlids. Turned out there were exactly 2 males and 2 females. The top two fish paired up, and killed the unmatched female. I managed to save the unpaired male and now he's by himself in a 10 gallon. 

So, by Thanksgiving, the convict pair, by themselves in a 20 long (in retrospect, that's pretty small for these fish) had a nice batch of fry. The people at the store told us that they had previously raised a batch in the store tank...that's dedication to procreation. Anyways, so things were looking well until the male started to attack the female. 

Again, these were my first cichlids so I made a series of stupid mistakes. Instead of removing the losing fish, I got a divider and separated the bullying male from the female and her fry (somehow I got it into my head that they were like humans, the mom would do a better job of raising them, or something) . 

Soon after, the fry starting disappearing and I can only conclude that the female started to eat her own fry. 

In the weeks following, I would pop the male over to the female's side and he would always rip right into her and leave her half-dead. By the beginning of 2010, they were pretty much permanently separated. 

Then, a year later now in 2011, I removed the divider. Both fish have been colored up and very healthy for several months. Initially they rushed out at each other and did lots of fin flaring and bright color flashing. There was some actual lip-locking, which I've never seen before. Things looked a bit tough in there, but I figured I'd watch them before immediately separating them again. 

Even though the male is slightly bigger, the female seemed to have won the lip-lock fight, because she took the male's cave and he stayed out of it. By the time a couple of hours had passed, she had taken over the tank, and he was in a corner hiding for his life. His caudal fin was ripped in half. By this morning, he was in awful condition and she was ruling the roost. 

I divided them yet again this morning.

I have no idea how the male went from serial killer to such a little pushover. And my female apparently went to battered women therapy because she adopted a very definitive take-no-crap attitude (sorry for the language).

I'm going to have to rethink my plans. As you might know, I have an empty 50 gallon I have yet to stock or even cycle. Could I possibly move the male and female, plus the bachelor male in the 10 in the 50 and see if they can sort things out in there? 

I can get the 50 instantly "cycled" by just using the two filters (Biowheel 150 and a 100) that I have on the 20 long, and then build up from there or something. 

Or, or, or, just leave everyone separated for the rest of their lives. (The male in half the 20, female in the other, and a bachelor in a 10). 

Oh dear, I really had no idea what I was getting into when I bought those convicts, eh?


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