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I purchased a young pair of convicts just over three months ago. The male is a bit larger than the female, probably 3.5" or so now. They spawned three times.

The first two times I didn't leave the fry in the tank for long, but the current batch of fry have been in the tank for a month.

Yesterday I noticed some tears/bites in the female's tail. This has happened before so I didn't think much of it. Today at feeding time though I couldn't find her at first, then saw her hiding behind the filter output. Her tail looks a bit worse. Each time she would try to move away from that area to get food the male would chase her back and then return to the fry.

Is this common? The tank is a 20 long with 2 pots/caves, a few anubias and driftwood. I can move her to my QT if necessary but will he ever accept her in the tank again? Does this have something to do with the fry?

Thanks

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Its not really common but does happen with cichlids. One of my acara males kicks the female off the nest after about 3 days, and will beat her severely if she comes close.

Convicts displaying their endearing personalities again. There is a reason for it though, females are more likely to eat eggs or fry in order to get back into breeding condition,but sometimes they overdo it, hence the fp term EESOB, lol, but if the males senses she is about to do this and he see's nothing wrong- then BAM! After all, as far as he knows , he might not be the father of the next batch- hes protecting his genetic line.

I think a lot of cichlid babies owe their lives to their protective dads. These behaviours all have their purposes, its the size of tanks we keep them in thats the issue.

The divorce probably isnt permanent, well, not unless he kills her, and he might...

i always thought moving fish, increases the chances for bonds to break.

I know where your comming from, my male convict had his partner for over a year and bred countless times, and one day he ended up killing her by chasing her around.

about a month later i bought a new female convict and they bred, and again after awhile he became very aggressive with her.

They have been moved into a 55 high and the aggression has stopped. prehaps a change in the tank will make them calm down. try moving the decor around or prehaps moving them into another tank.

Thanks for the replies.

I don't know what happened but the next day everything was back to normal. To be on the safe side, though, I did some re-arranging when I cleaned the tank.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

You could always move the fry, or place a divider in the tank to separate them, yet not remove her.

IMO and experience, he is not trying to save the fry, but just trying to get her back into the breeding mode. He wants to spawn again, but while she is around the fry she will not come into breeding condition. In many fish, including most of the SA and CA, the male will beat up on the female to show how aggressive and strong he is. Being dominant over her shows her that he is a strong fish in the community and will be a strong protector.

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There is always a bigger fish...

When you moved the fry the first two times, they couple most liely assumed they were dead. To counteract their loss, convicts can breed again very quickly if necessary. Once a batch of fry lives in the tank for a while... the breeding will slow down. As for the fighting, the male could have tried to sneak a taste of one of the fry, as they sometimes tend to do that.