crenicichla compressiceps

[aspen]

here's an update:

some time back (november) i bought 2 c. compressiceps, and a while later i bought a third. they have been kept apart (divided 15 gal, plus an adjacent 5 gal all of this time. after some thinking and advice, i decided not to put any of them together till i see a pair. they have had tapwater only all this time. pairing behaviour has been minimum. lately agression between the divided 'pair' has been at a minimum.

last week i looked for one, and it seemed to be missing. after carefully looking for it i found him? in the other side of the divided tank (jumped), 6 gals with 2 of these nasty guys, all fins accounted for. i left the third in the next tank, and removed the divider in the 15 gal. so far the 2 seem to be ok, each taking turns at feeding time, and fairly well-manered. tank is bare bottomed, and decorations are simply 2 'nest sites', 2 rocks in a pile and a store bought 'hollow log'.

so, 3 of these nasty guys in a total of about 16 gals of water. how is this possible? well, i can only guess that the 2 have paired and will breed, and 'protect' their lair from the third. i am not going to separate them or move the 3rd guy till i see fins missing, or see babies. fingers are crossed.

just an fyi, rick

 

[Neil]

Rick,

Just keep a close eye on them. My experience with them has been that they always come around to aggression with each other at one point or another. After mine spawned they were just wonderful to each other, and then all of a sudden, one day the male took most the females caudal fin off. I pulled her and it took more than a month to heal. I put her back in and they spawned again and played lovey-dovey. They spawned again and the same thing happened. 8O

I hope you get to see it first-hand...The spawning at least!

Neil