Spawning or ???

[GarrettS]

Never seen this before so I thought I ask but the other morning before my lights on my tank came on I saw my 2 Lake Malawi Cichlids both which I think are males not sure if they are for sure cause i dont know how to tell the sex of fish. But anyways I saw them rubbing up next to each other and then the one turned and shock its bad fine crazy. None of the other fish were around them and it was in my show tank but not sure if the one is holding now it looks like it was doing something never really seen it before and not sure what they were doing tried catch the one. Everytime I try the bigger one jumps in front of the smaller one so I cant catch it and then it hides dont know what to do been check to see if it mouth getting bigger havent really noticed a difference but its been eating way less now. Also the bigger one been following it around more and been moe protective. So my question is did they spawn? How do I tell male from female? If they did mate do I need to seperate that one from the rest or best to leave it alone?

[steveh28]

There are a lot of cichlids from Lake Malawi. Sexing some is nearly impossible, while others are sexually dimorphic (males and females are different colors). If one is holding for sure, then its a pretty safe bet that one is a female. Do you know the species? Knowing that will help us tell you how to sex them.

Swimming in circles and flashing at each other can be signs of spawning or aggression. If you watched them behaving this way, did you see one scoop down and pick anything up off the sand with her mouth? Generally if they are holding, they will not eat, but may still swim up to food and look at it. I have had a few female mouthbrooders eat in the first few days of holding, however.

Are these the only two in the tank? If it was aggression, they have probably established their pecking order, and the "protective" following around could be the dominant fish keeping the other in line. With just two fish in the tank, the submissive fish will not eat as much out of fear of getting attacked.

If one is for sure a holding female, I would remove it into a 10 gal tank of her own. She will keep getting harassed, especially if she is the only female in the tank. Give her a few places to hide, and in a few weeks you will have some fry!