Got a Question

[cichlid_freak]

I woke up this morning and my yellow lab was in a jaw locking ceremony. The only problem was...his partner was a red zebra. They would lock jaws and then spin around each other very quickly. I don't want mutts, and was wondering what I should do? Will they breed? Is this really a sign of breeding in Mbunas, or is this just a fight over territory? TIA as always.

 

[angelphish]

Most likely it was dispute. Though some different species will breed with each other. If you don't want this to happen you can try keeping only males of different species, though some are hard to distinquish from females.

 

[semper fi]

they are fighting. the two can cross breed, but when they are mating they will shimmy in front of eachother to signify their willingness to mate. mbunas lock jaws with other fish and thrash them around til the weaker fish is exhausted and then the dominant one will beat the living bejeezus out of the other til it kills it.

as for keeping only males of the species?! this will really p_ _s them off! better to stick with the females. hard thing about the mbuna is that if you only keep females then you will lose alot of the color as the males are the most colorful. most mbunas are born with female or juvenile coloring. so they will have to be matured to know what sex you have as they are too small also to vent.

mbunas are harem breeders. more than likely this was a dispute over the females of either species in the tank. you could add at a minimum of 3 females to each male species or seperate the two species.

maggie