# Red Jewel Pairup



## Ollie (Sep 22, 2009)

Hi All
Over the last few weeks mine have been breeding had 3 lays now so the cycle should be over for a few weeks. Yesterday while I was at work the male went postal and nearly killed the female I came home to find her tucked up behind my spray bar with next to no fins, no chunks taken out thankfully, she is now recovering in a seperate tank. Do these fish form a bonded pair?(mine are H. Cristatus) What would the chances be of a successful reintergration?

Thanks

Ollie


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

you said that you had three lays did they hatch? Did you take the fry from the parents? Sometimes if you take the fry from the parents and take all of them this super stresses them out and cause this super aggression between the pair. It sounds like this is what you are experiencing! Please update thread with answers and how she is doing I have a pair of Hemichromis bimaculatus and they have had fry twice now and they are amazing fish! I actually have them in with my Malawi set up and it is working out fine contrary to what the majority recommends please keep me posted and if you could add pics that would help too


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## Ollie (Sep 22, 2009)

Hi 
Sorry its taken so long to get back I havent been over here in a while
After letting the female recover in a seperate tank and adding larger dither fish as reccomended by a breeder (boesemani rainbows) I reintroduced the female to the tank it went pretty well she had a few goes at him initally but it all settled down after half an hour. Everything was going well for the next few days till I came down one morning and found her dead  . The male had also tried taking chunks out of pretty much everything else in the tank. He went back to my lfs and after a quick chat with the manager(who's a very experienced fish keeper) came to the conclusion that the fish was simply a very mean tempered individual who would need to be housed alone or with larger fish than him.
In regards to the fry situation the first lot hatched and proceded to eat the second and third batches of eggs and were still in the tank when the inital agression started. After chatting with the breeder he suggested the inital agression was caused by the male being ready to mate again and the female still in fry protection mode and not ready to breed. 
They were very good parents while it lasted I just got an aggro male and there was nothing I could have done really except get rid of him sooner.

Regards

Ollie


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

Sorry to here that I wouldn't give up on the Jewels though I would try them again they are amazing fish! Especially if you have them in a species specific tank they are amazing! How big was the tank you had them in that could have also been an issue.


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## Ollie (Sep 22, 2009)

The tank is 48x12x16 40gal and densely planted with quite a few caves. I would try them again if I had a tank to devote to them. I've gone with something a bit different this time, african brown knife fish, odd but still cool.

Regards

Ollie


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

four feet long you sure its not a 55g and you only have one knife fish in there or community fish too?


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## Ollie (Sep 22, 2009)

Definitly 40 gal it was custom built for the guy I bought it off to go in a wall but never got used, it had been sitting in his garage for 7 years, came with a ttec in1000 filter, heater and light ballast and cost me Ã‚Â£30 . Current stock list is 2 Xenomystus nigri(knife fish) 6 boesemani rainbows, 2 striped raphael cats and 6 Corydas aeneus.

Regards

Ollie


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