Convict Cichlids Chasing - need help

[leo09087]

Hello,
I bought 2 convicts whose sizes are within 2 inches for my 20-gallon tank. They were quite peaceful in the first week, but then the larger one (a male I believe) started chasing the female and took several bites on her stomach so I separated them. They are the only fish in this tank. What might cause this chasing behavior of the larger fish? Is there anything I should do at this moment? Thank you very much for your help!

 

[itiwhetu]

Put some big rocks and plant in the tank so they can find their own spaces. Give them some protection from each other. By the way convicts are shitty little buggers with personalities that I don't have words for.

 

[DomTay94]

Hard to tell from your photos about male and female have you any other photos? Convicts are great fish very active and full of character but they are also hardy little dudes. I’ve got a big male in my 4ft tank he’s pretty placid and then I’ve got 2 small convicts in my 5ft they must only be about a couple inches male and female they are living with a large Red Devil and a large Oscar big sailfin Plec and they’ve lived there for a month or so now they are so resilient and hardy it’s pretty impressive. Anyway as above ad plenty hiding spaces either plants rocks or decor to let them find there own space in the tank. Good luck

 

[leo09087]

Hard to tell from your photos about male and female have you any other photos? Convicts are great fish very active and full of character but they are also hardy little dudes. I’ve got a big male in my 4ft tank he’s pretty placid and then I’ve got 2 small convicts in my 5ft they must only be about a couple inches male and female they are living with a large Red Devil and a large Oscar big sailfin Plec and they’ve lived there for a month or so now they are so resilient and hardy it’s pretty impressive. Anyway as above ad plenty hiding spaces either plants rocks or decor to let them find there own space in the tank. Good luck

Thank you for the advise! I have 4-5 rocks and a clay pot as a cave. Interestingly, none of them has swum the pot once.

 

[leo09087]

Hard to tell from your photos about male and female have you any other photos? Convicts are great fish very active and full of character but they are also hardy little dudes. I’ve got a big male in my 4ft tank he’s pretty placid and then I’ve got 2 small convicts in my 5ft they must only be about a couple inches male and female they are living with a large Red Devil and a large Oscar big sailfin Plec and they’ve lived there for a month or so now they are so resilient and hardy it’s pretty impressive. Anyway as above ad plenty hiding spaces either plants rocks or decor to let them find there own space in the tank. Good luck

Thanks a lot for your advice! Sorry but I do not have any better shots right now. The smaller one is definitely a female as almost half of the belly is colored with orange (which is apparently not shown clearly in my photo). The larger one has no color. Is it safe to assume he/she will not develop any color in the future considering (s)he is already a lot larger than the one showing color? As for the decor, I think the larger one might have just declared the entire tank as his own