Re-establishing a breeding pair of convicts (advice wanted)

So I've moved my convict breeding pair from one tank to another. It is set up IDENTICAL to the previous tank, same water, same tank mates, etc. And before they were completely fine with each other. Now, the female stays hidden behind the heater and the male keeps chasing her when she comes out.

How can I induce their "relationship" again so I can get them to breed again?

 

Re: Re-establishing a breeding pair

LMAO! Good call, I'll have to download some Barry White haha.

He just keeps bullying her and it's getting annoying. I hate seeing a fish hiding behind a heater because of fear from another fish.

I might just take out the male, put him into a bucket with an air stone for like 30 minutes and then reintroduce him. Would this help?

It's the only thing I can think of to get him to back off

 

Re: Re-establishing a breeding pair

My fiance actually made that suggestion too earlier. She isn't even into fish and she was telling me that it could be that. She knows from before that when he wants to mate he turns really dark, and when the female wants to mate her stomach gets bright orange.

Well he is certainly dark black and she isn't orange so I think you're right. I will do a water change tomorrow to see if maybe it induces her into wanting to haha!

I also read online that adding a few ice cubes to the tank will simulate rainfall, ever heard of such a thing?

I might try it ha ha.

 

Re: Re-establishing a breeding pair

Yeah! we must have read the same site! I wonder if this works on other fish though. Couldn't hurt to try I guess.

 

Re: Re-establishing a breeding pair

Oh really? Should I add colder water or add warmer water?

Thanks for the tip!

 

Re: Re-establishing a breeding pair

They have settled down for now. They have picked out a resin tree stump I have in there and she stays in there all the time. I think she might of laid eggs again. This is the first time in that particular spot though.

He beat the mess out of her the first few days of reintroducing them into the new aquarium and now he only chases her back into the stump.

I am guessing she didn't want to mate so he kept being persistent haha!

But I did notice that on the last batch of fry (their first batch), after about 2 weeks a bunch of the fry were missing and he was beating on her again. I guess I need a grow out tank haha.

 

Re: Re-establishing a breeding pair

It's cool to see them change colors depending on if they want to breed or not.

The male gets really dark, almost black and the female gets really light and her belly glows bright orange.

When they've mated they're both really light colored, almost white with black bars.

They're like the "mood rings" of the fish world.

 

Re: Re-establishing a breeding pair

Haha yeah that's true.

LFS won't take them in as credit? If not that's not good haha I don't want to give them away as feeders. If worst comes to worst, I'll just let nature run it's course. If any of the fry survive the main tank, then they can grow up haha.

 

Re: Re-establishing a breeding pair

Ah. I figured that was the case. The "just add water" breeding fish is a curse.

It sucks though, I think these are very entertaining fish to watch. They have a lot of character and I think more people should give them a shot.

 

Re: Re-establishing a breeding pair

Be very careful adding ice or changing the temp during water changes, both areeasy way to kill your fish. If a temp is changed add the ice slowly and turn off your heaters so that they are not ruining what you are trying to do.