# Convict relationship behavior questions.



## cichlidtank87 (May 9, 2009)

I have group of 4 convicts in a 75 gal. tank (among 4 other Malawi Cichlids), two of them paired up and had some fry. The fry are now about 10 days old and both the parents were doing their normal protecting and scaring off other fish to protect the fry, but about two days ago the parents got into a fight and the dad kicked the mom out of the "fry area" and the moms beat up pretty bad. My first question is this:

Is this normal behavior for the male to do this? He doesn't even let the female near her fry anymore, she hangs out with the other fish in the tank now.
My second question is this:
Her tail fin is pretty beat up. One split is all the way to the body. Will these splits and tears eventually heal up completely? I don't have a hospital tank to put her in, therefore haven't given her any medication yet. I'm not too sure what to do about her. She doesn't seem to be in pain from it, she swims normally and is eating good and socializes with the other fish just fine. Any suggestions?


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Cichlids can be jerks...

If the male isn't happy with the kind of parenting the female is offering, it's not unheard of for the male to kick the female out of the nest. Especially when there are other females to choose from.

The male may care for the brood on his own and they may do fine... or he may tire of the constant chore and eat them to simply start over with the next female of his choosing...

As for the injured girl... They can go through quite a bit and then heal back up... but there is a breaking point for injuries where they become permanent... without seeing your fish there is no way to speculate how bad she is. From the general description you gave it doesn't sound like she is beyond healing... although long term scaring or impercect regrowth is a possibility...

As to where to go from here... I'm sure the injured girl would appreciate a vacation from the probably aggression/stress she is under... but since you don't have an available tank to move her to and she's not under (what appears to be) constant aggression... give her a couple of days and see how she does.

If she's in horrible shape and others are picking on her, you can use a divider and wall off a small section for her at the end of your tank, but if she's fairly healthy being trapped in a small corner may cause her more stress than it relieves...


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

you could also look into using some melafix to speed the healing process.....i use on all my tanks with every waterchange with great results....it will also work as a preventative for fungus and internal infections


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

cichlidtank87 said:


> about two days ago the parents got into a fight and the dad kicked the mom out of the "fry area" and the moms beat up pretty bad. Is this normal behavior for the male to do this? He doesn't even let the female near her fry anymore, she hangs out with the other fish in the tank now.


This was normal behaviour for my convicts. The male would get bored after about 1 week of being a single dad and he would then take the female back and they would breed again. Happened every time. While on their 'breaks the female would hang out with another large male convict and the 2 would start the courtship rituals - but she alsways swam back to the other male when it was actually time to spawn.



cichlidtank87 said:


> My second question is this:
> Her tail fin is pretty beat up. One split is all the way to the body. Will these splits and tears eventually heal up completely? I don't have a hospital tank to put her in, therefore haven't given her any medication yet. I'm not too sure what to do about her. She doesn't seem to be in pain from it, she swims normally and is eating good and socializes with the other fish just fine. Any suggestions?


Keep the water clean. Convicts are remarkably tough so while these tears won't hurt her long term secondary infection could do her in. My big male convict had a disagreement with a spotted raphael catfish that decided it wanted to hang out in their cave (where the eggs were) and the convict got pretty beaten up in the fight (so did the cat). He had tattered lips and a cloudy eye - I did large volume water changes every 2nd day for a week (3 total) and he was completely healed after 8 days. I thought he was going to be blind permanently...


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## cichlidtank87 (May 9, 2009)

I'm glad to hear that this is normal behavior, I was debating on getting rid of the male once the fry were old enough to handle their own, but since any other male will do the same, there is no point unless I just don't own Convicts period. Actually her tail seems to have actually healed a bit since I posted these questions, so thats a relief since I don't have a hospital tank. I'll just have to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't get worse or get beat up on too much.

The tank is a decent size, so she has plenty of room to get away from him.. although the single dad with the about 50-70 fry own about 1/3 of the tank, not allowing ANY other fish nearby for any reason. But she still has hiding places and plenty of room in the other 2/3 of the tank. As for illy-d's response, the female is doing exactly what your used to do. She has actually been spending her time with another dominant male convict in the tank and have been protecting their clay pot as if they had eggs in it, but I checked and there aren't any. So maybe she will go on back to her original hubby eventually... who knows? Or maybe she'll mate with her new boyfriend and I'll be able to start my own soap opera with the drama that ensues. Thanks for the replies!


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## hyposalinity (Apr 30, 2008)

It was a vicious cycle with my Cons. 1st the male would beat the snot out of the female until she laid eggs, once the eggs were laid the female would beat the snot out of the male. Once the fry hatched they got along great, they protected the fry together. The female would be at that fine line that seperates recovery and doom, he would make it a point to find her, chas eher and bite her. She would only chase him and bite him if he got too close, she never went on a mission to find him. Once the fry were wiggling around though they were unseparable, happy couple.


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## Riceburner (Sep 3, 2008)

good thing my pair got along well together, even before fry.


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