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2 days after moving my pair of Jewels to my new 125 gal tank, I have eggs! Obviously they appreciated the move. And I was wondering how well they would settle in. I'm pretty happy with that.

However, last time they spawned (in the old, much smaller tank), they followed it with a psychotic killing spree. At the moment there's not a lot in the new tank that they can get to to hurt, but when the rest of the inhabitants move in then that'll be another story.

Is there a way to stop the pair of them from spawning? I'm guessing not, without separating them. I won't have another tank to move them to in a month or two, as the old one's going, so I think I'll have to pass them back to the LFS for something less likely to kill their neighbours.

In a larger aquarium they may be less likely to kill everything in sight, you can also help alot with the aquascaping, provide lots and lots of hiding places such as caves that smaller fish can fit into but not the jewels.

That's true, though not many of the inhabitants I'm trying to protect are smaller than them.

It will be interesting to see how far they roam this time around. Last time the tank was small enough that when they were wandering around the tank with the fry they went through every other fish's territory, and fought everyone.

I'll let them do their thing this time, see what happens. I'll move the other inhabitants in later.

Well if the fish are bigger than them, you'd hope that they'd be able to look after themselves.

Were the fish they killed last time bigger or smaller than them?

The only ones killed were smaller.. but they savaged some larger ones too (bala sharks, synodontis catfish). I'd rather there was no mauling either.

But anyway, it's all academic this time, as the eggs are now gone. We'll see what happens next time they try.

Update - the eggs had disappeared for good reason. After doing a water change yesterday, I find a cloud of little tiny fry!

Parents are still pretty diligent this time around, but there are no bottom feeders in the tank at the moment, so everything is getting out of the firing line by swimming up to the upper reaches of the tank. The parents are still going to be too territorial to share space with the clown loaches and synodontis catfish I plan to put in there too. Nothing is being allowed in the bottom 2/3 of the tank.

Looks like it'll be back to the LFS for them, which is a shame. Hopefully some of the fry will make it this time around, as they won't be in the tank for the next try.

If this fish is Hemichromis guttatus (originally named Hemichromis bimaculatus), then the bad news is that they are, in breeding mode, likely to go on "search and destroy" expeditions to keep all threats away from the eggs and fry. However, the up side is that they make superb parents, are utterly fearless in defence of their young (as you will find out if you put your fingers in the tank!) and as an exercise in breeding the more bad tempered Cichlids, are an ideal choice due to their relatively compact size. In breeding dress they are also stunning to behold, well and truly living up to their name of Jewel Cichlids!

You'll find that these fishes polarise aquarists into two opposing camps with precious little middle ground - those who won't touch them with a 60 foot barge pole because of their armour-clad territorial instincts and extreme willingness to dispatch intruders, and those who can't get enough of their fiery and volcanic personalities (which in the case of this species borders on the positively pyroclastic!).

A pity you're parting with them - in a 125, you might stand a chance of integrating them with other fishes, but in all probability those other fishes will be other bad tempered Cichlids and precious little else


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

When my pair of geophagus brasiliensis spawned like crazy and went on killing sprees like your jewels, I decided to simply take out the eggs, scrape it off and feed it back to the fish. After about half a hour they become back docile. Harsh, but effective.

When they tried to spawn the second time in the small tank, I *did* scrape off all the eggs. It did calm them down a lot - and they didn't seem to try again until they got to the new tank.

Unfortunately they are going to be in a community tank, so this kind of antisocial behaviour is just not going to be a good idea. It is a 125, but it's a 4x2x2, so the other inhabitants can't get that far away.

They are *really* attractive fish, particularly at the moment, but if they're going to be so savage, I'm not going to wear all the damage to the other inhabitants. They haven't gone anywhere yet, so if I come up with another idea, they might be able to stay, but I can't see how to resolve it.

Post an ad in the Classifieds section of the Board if you are intent upon parting with them - I'm sure that there are several people on the Board who are fans of feisty Cichlids who would welcome the opportunity to obtain a mated pair of these guys with a known provenance

However, make sure that you emphasise in the ad you post that these fishes are seriously volcanic in the mood department when spawning, and unlikely to live alongside anything else once the patter of tiny fins is under way. Most decent Cichlid keepers will know this of course, particularly if they're seeking out this species and have done the research, but it's wise to let the prospective buyer know in advance what kind of hardcore criminals he's taking on

It's a pity you're not in the position to give them their own setup. The rewards for doing so would be immense - you would see them display their amazing family life, and witness them exhibiting a diligence of care of their offspring that would shame quite a few humans


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002