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Hi- I have a question about cichlid breeding behavior. My mother-in-law has a tank of mixed african cichlids, about 5-6 total fish in a 75 gallon tank. She called me up today wanting to know why two of her fish were behaving strangely. Apparently there is a dolphin cichlid and a peacock cichlid that have suddenly become inseparable. They hang out together all day and then when the tank lights are turned out in the evening they chase each other around like they're dancing and will lock lips/mouths. She said it doesn't appear agressive and there is no physical damage on either of the fish. I don't really know that much about cichlids, but it sounds like they are in love to me. Does that sound like recognizable breeding behavior? Will cichlids interbreed? Is there any chance that the eggs would hatch or would they be sterile? Won't they become agressive towards the rest of the tank mates if a spawning does occur? If anyone here knows anything about this type of situation or can point me towards another source of information I would appreciate it. I don't really know what to tell her to do. She only has the one tank so splitting them up isn't an option unless one goes back to the LFS. I'm afraid if they do breed it will just open up the door to a bunch of problems. The biggest of which could be a bunch of crossbred fish that nobody wants and she won't cull. Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!



- Meow -

Cichlids will indeed hybridise, as the existence of the Blood Parrot and flowerhorn hybrids testifies all too readily.

Cichlids are intelligent fishes, and given the chance, will seek out mates of their own species, discriminating between potential mates of the correct species and those of the incorrect species infallibly. However, it may transpire that there do not exist mates of the requisite species in an aquarium, and, sometimes, the urge to mate will become so powerful that a male of one Cichlid species will pair up with a female of a different species. This may happen naturally in the wild when conditions favour this, but most hybridisations are regarded as aquarium phenomena.

The next question to ask is "will there be any offspring?". This is contingent upon a number of factors - principal among these being how closely related genetically the two species in question are. The fact that some Cichlid hybridisations generate offspring instead of infertile eggs, and moreover produce viable offspring that are capable of further reproduction is usually a sign that the parents belong to species that had a common evolutionary ancestor, and furthermore diverged into separate species only fairly recently (as in the last million years or so). "Species" is actually a dynamic concept (given the gene exchange that takes place during secual reproduction in any sexually reproducing organism, right down to Protists, it could hardly be anything else BUT a dynamic concept) and what constitutes a "species" at present will almost certainly change in another few million years, when populations have had chance to become isolated from each other and venture along their own different generational pathways. Usually, one considers a "species" to be an assemblage of organisms, capable of reproducing with each other, but reproductively distinct from another assemblage. However, given that two populations of one species may become isolated, and in a few million years follow different generational pathways, that one original species can end up as two. In fact, that's how the vast array of species we have now came about - an extant past species became segregated into isolated populations, those populations bred in isolation, and hey presto, a few million years later, they're all different species. In fact, as the Rift Lakes demonstrate amply, the fishes don't have to be separated from each other to accomplish this - if they find themselves in a completely new environment, with no other creatures occupying the available niches, they will set about moving into those niches, specialising along the way and becoming distinct species that way - a process called "radiative adaptation". Rift Lake Cichlids ended up in Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika as a result of those lakes forming in fairly recent geological time (something like 2 million years or so if memory serves) and when the ancestral Haplochromine Cichlids found themselves in those waters after the formation of the lakes, they found themselves unwittingly cast in the roles of pioneers in a new world. Pretty soon they started settling down to the business of life in their new homes, and in doing so, found all kinds of new opportunities open to them ... for those willing to take the plunge and adapt. And adapt they did in spades. Also driving this was pressure upon the males from the females, which, as the radiative adaptation took place, became more and more selective in favour of males with particular traits (sexual selection) and so, a combination of new habitat, new niches to occupy and picky females led to the ancestral Haplochromine inhabitants (probably mo more than a dozen species initially) radiating out into the 1,300 species we see in those lakes today.

The fact that Rift Lake Cichlids all diverged fairly recently from each other means that if conditions in an aquarium are appropriate, individuals of different species will hybridise fairly regularly, even across Genera. Consequently, it should come as no surprise to learn that your Peacock (which is probably an Aulonocara species) could very well team up with your Dolphin (which I suspect from the name is Cyrtocara moorii). Some additional information on identity of the fishes concerned would be welcome (and preferably scientific names if possible, as these are unambiguous) but even without this, what you describe comes as no surprise. Lip locking is a long recognised Cichlid courtship behaviour, and common to Cichlids across both Africa and the Americas, and the fact that the two fishes cited are engaging in this is perfectly comprehensible in the light of the above.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002