CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

I've got some convicts in a 15, and they bred recently. After about 2 and 1/2 weeks (about a week ago), I moved 40 or 50 of the fry to a cycled ten gallon. There are still 20 or 30 fry in the 15 gallon. The Male has started giving the Female a lot of trouble, flairing his gills and chasing her around the aquarium. Would it be helpful to move either of the fish to the ten gallon, or should I just leave them where they are? Any advice is appreciated.

--A side note to the people who run this website--
I really appreciate all of the help you people give. This is a great site and I encourage you to keep up the good work. I have learned a LOT in the time I've spent looking through your forum.

I forgot to ask...
Can I use dither fish to distract the male, or will they just eat the fry?

Hi deepsea,
I'd recommend just moving one of them for a while, yes you could try and keep one distracted with other fish but I think it's best just to separate them even maybe with a tank divider temporarily. (Although from what I remember I just let mine fight it out though there were places to run to and hide etc...)
And glad to have you onboard

I don't need to be considered with the male killing the female? There are plenty of places for her to hide (I used slate along the whole back of the tank so that it looks like a honeycomb of caves) but the tank is only a 15 gallon tank, and there is not a lot of room for her to run.

*I don't need to be concerned

When i had my albino cons they bred several times while they were mine, after a couple of weeks the male would restart the mating process which included chasing her about again till she started presenting again.

It never bothered me but if its getting really bad like hes always bothering her and not leaving her alone at all then you could put a divider in there just in case

Hope this helps

Yeah, it seems i took care of the problem. I removed the fry, and within a week they had bred again. I just hope the fry get to selling size before I have to remove the batch they just bred, because I don't have any more tanks. I appreciate the help, though. We'll just see how it turns out.