Is This Typical Ram Mating Behavior?!

yekram10

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Hi there after succesfully breeding kribs ive decided to breed rams!.....i had a male ram in a tank i planed to use for breeding...i then later added a lovely female ram to said tank...both swim openly in the tank however they are positioning their body's next to each other so there heads face to the opposite end of the next fish. Then they will peck at each other and sometime peck as if kissing....neither is hiding in a corner or looks like its being bullied...is this normal breeding behavior?!
 
It does sound like courtship. Cichlids are sometimes harder to tell as they have territory issues and etc....But if you notice the female hiding in a cave or whatnot for a while she could be possibly guarding eggs.Just keep an eye on them, just to make sure the male isn't giving the female a hard time.
 
If one doesn't chase the other one out of a certain area of the tank, then they are paired - or one could be too young and the adult just doesn't see them as a threat, as I have had that happen with some of my ram fry when I add them to a tank with adults and other rams excluding their parents. Rams when paired aren't much for doing a "kissing" behavior but rather dancing or swirling around each other instead. If the both have their dorsal fins erect when swimming by each other and aren't facing one another or one is tilting to the side, then they are paired.

If one of them is tilting over to the side while another ram is facing them, the ram that is tilting is showing submission and that they are defending their territory but they don't mean to come to the other ram's area of the tank. Like how dogs will lay on their backs to show submission, rams are very much the same.

A lot like their dorsal fins being erect or laid flat, they are similar to dogs as they are like their ears. If their fins are up, they are asserting their confidence and showing that they are defending an area in the tank and they want to be seen by other fish that they display their dorsal fin to so they would avoid the ram and his or her territory. With their dorsal fin laid down, they are showing that they are not higher than the other fish or ram, and they are not bigger than the other ram and are not a threat.
 

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