M. altinosposa question

[aspen]

i got 3 adult ruby rams yesterday, and put them into my discus tank. (no worries about quarentine where i got them.) tank is a 90 gal with 6 discus, 7 small geophagus and 2 small royal plecos. geo's are almost identical in size to the rams. when the fish went in, the geo's and the rams immediately went through lots of 'typical cichlid behaviour' but with no torn fins though. the 3 fish i picked were, 2 stouter ones with their ovipositor showing all the time, and one just a little smaller but slimmer who staked a part of the tank out showing a nice display. i am hoping this was 2 females and a male.

anyway, today i noticed that things have quitened down quite a bit, and the 'male' and one 'female' are spending all of their time together, and the other 'female' has gone off with the geo's. the 'male' now has HIS ovipositor down, and i am sure it was not down yesterday. can i assume this is a pair or should i wait till i see eggs and fry? i am pretty sure at this point. i might want to return the other 'female'.

the other option is to get another male, i have no problem with this either. any possibility this is not a good idea? tank is pretty sparse of decorations. maybe i can pull 1 pair if breeding starts, but i don't want to start WW3 either.

rick

 

[Neil]

Rick,

can i assume this is a pair or should i wait till i see eggs and fry?

I think that is a reasonable bet. I think that I would keep things the way that they are. The male will have a choice of females and the female that is left out should have no more problems than any of the other cichlids in the tank if/when breeding starts. However, you could certainly get another male and take a pair out, but you probably don't really have to do that, judging by your explaination.
Good luck,
Neil