Firemouth actions???

[emjay653]

Hi there,

About 3 weeks ago, I purchased 2 Firemouths, both of which are ~1" in size. Upto today they have been swimming together, and generally getting along with each other, but things have now changed.

The two of them were in an empty part of the tank, and started flaring their gills at one another (Probably a more scientific term for this), and swimming head-to-tail as if to get in a telling bite upon the other. This went on for several minutes, and has now stopped, but now one of them is chasing the other round the tank.

The question is, what is this behaviour? Is this 2 males vying to be the Alpha male in the tank? Is it them practicing how to fight? Will I need to move the loser to a different tank to save it from any danger?

Mj

 

[juanveldez]

cichlids are amazingly resiliant, I wouldn't worry about them too much, how big of a tank do you have? because what it could be is that they are each trying to set up a territory, and they feel that there isn't enough room. I personally have a Jack Dempsey and a Gold Saum in a 55 gallon tank and they both have a territory of their own but that wasn't how it was on the first day, as they were jawlocked for the better part of 45 minutes!

 

[emjay653]

They are currently in a 36(l)x12(w)x18(h) (I think that's 28 Gallons (UK)), but I have a 48x12x18 (37 gallon) tank that I'm currently setting up to put them in.

Now that you mean jawlocked, they did have their mouths together as well.

Will they be ok until then? Would I be right in thinking this means they are both males then? If so I may be able to take one of them back and trade it for another one to see if I can get a female

Mj

 

[juanveldez]

the two of them would defenatly be happy in the bigger tank, they will be fine, now in some species it looks the same when mating and when settling turf disputes, however at 1 inch I doubt that they are mating. just give them some little hiddie holes and I think that things should settle down, it is just really hard to tell the difference in cichlids at that size.

 

[emjay653]

I'll just have to hurry up the other tank then.

Thanks for the help.

As an aside, you wouldn't know what other cichlids, or fish, would be alright in the same tank as them? Particularly interested in something to eat the leftovers and the algae.

Mj

 

[juanveldez]

well as far as a clean up crew a bristlenose pelc would be great, don't speed up the new tank progress and make a mistake, tankmates, anything that is fast I have seen and heard of a nice group of 6 tiger barbs is sutible, stay away form most of the tetras as they will be come dinner when the firemouths get full grown.