JazzyJeff Posted March 22, 2010 Report Share Posted March 22, 2010 I have 2 male GBA's but only 1 female - The one male seems to be doing all the work so far... He has just raised his 3rd lot of kiddies. I have them all in a large tank but when the eggs hatch the clown loaches start to pull poor daddy-bristles out of his log to get to the young so I have been removing him to another tank where he can raise his young in peace. This time I kept him in the other tank a bit longer hoping the female might breed with the other one (who is the same age but a little smaller) The female just doesn't seem interested enough in him - Today I gave up and put the big guy back into the tank with his log and almost immediately the games began! Do I need to get the smaller guy a female of his own? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 22, 2010 Report Share Posted March 22, 2010 They are not pair forming but their will be certain attributes that the female is "looking" for in order to breed with a male.. If you removed the dominant (breeding) male for a long enough period then odds are the female would eventually breed with the other but they may also never get along.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-town... Posted March 22, 2010 Report Share Posted March 22, 2010 I use to have one male breed with 4 females Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted March 22, 2010 Report Share Posted March 22, 2010 No, and i dont think the female decides. More so the males chase the ladies, plants his seed, then she fattens and will lay when the conditions are good and shes ready/or male lets her in his cave?. I use to have one male breed with 2 or 3 females, gave the females a nice break in between spawns. Male didnt get much rest though, got to give the males credit Pairs or 1 male to 2 females i found worked well. More than one male may fight? Prob best to provide a cave for each male, driftwood with hole drilled in worked well for me, the fish like the hole just wide enough so they can spread their fins. So you cant get them out :evil: :lol: Maybe the smaller is just not ready to become a father, wise man to lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted March 22, 2010 Report Share Posted March 22, 2010 i would think that they could also be like other fish, the dominant male has his way & the sub-dominant must keep to himself or man up for the number one spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted March 22, 2010 Report Share Posted March 22, 2010 There was an interesting article on mate selection in cichlids in TFH a while ago. The author did an experiment with a group of 6 (3m 3f) small central american cichlids, and found that the dominant male and female would breed, and the two other females would court with the dominant male but not breed with him, while ignoring the other two males. They would rather not pass on their genes than breed with a sup-par mate! Not saying this is true for all fish of course, but there is a lot of varying factors in how fish select their mates... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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