convict cichlids?

Question

my convicts had fry about 4 weeks ago.
the m & f got on fine both protecting the fry but now the fry are bigger the female keeps them round the flower pot and attacks the male when he gets close.

Before they had babies he used to bully her but now the tables have turned and she has him hiding in the corner.

Why is this?

today the male has took over the cave and is defending him self more.
The seem to challenge each other.
I have not seperated them yet because there is no damage to any of them.
The female seems to swim on her side over to th male. i thought she was sick but form watching her she is doing this on purpose

Answer 1

this is normal and part of the breeding behaviour.
The female does not always want the males much loved attention and can sometimes hide from him.
She is attacking him rather than hiding because she is still protecting her brood.
Make sure they have somewhere to hide as this well help the number of conflicts they have.

If you are wanting to save the fry then you should start thinking of removing them from the breeding tank.
Once the female is ready to spawn again she will pair back up with the male and they will spawn, this will take about a week or 2.
Your female should have lost all the beautiful colouring now and will just have the black and white, when she starts getting the yellow on her belly on her tail (like she was before they spawned) then you will know things are pretty immanent.
At this point they will kill all the fry to protect the new eggs.

saving convict fry every time is a endless task iv been there, they just breed to much and my lfs dont always want them.
I saved 10 from my 1st batch and have since gave 8 away and kept 2 females in my cichlid tank.

Answer 2

I hate convict chichlids!!!!!
first shes probebly just tierd of the males crap
second let me tell yas a lil story. I worked for a small zoo. A cooler was droped off at the door step and inside were 200 nbaby convitcts. I know about them really well. We wont kill em se we made sure they were healthy and put em in the system. We knew what wuld happend but what choice would we have. even though in a sepret system they gre and breed. Guess how many there are now?? Tomany to keep track of. In the main system we had 6, by the end of there year there were... well you can guess... This is why I hate em. they breed like rabbits. be prepared to be a grandpa many generations though.

Answer 3

That's fairly normal breeding behavior for them. Assuming the tank is large enough for him to stay out of her way, it should be fine within a few weeks. If the tank is small enough that he is in danger, you will need to remove him.

MM