ice blue shimmy

[newbees]

hey all, just wanted to know if anyone could enlighten us on the behaviour of ur ice blues? we are new to cichlids and recently our ice blue colony has been behaving odddd, the males do this display and shake their bodies in a vibrating sorta way, thought they could be breeding??? thanks!

[spoon]

can sometimes be a show of aggression as well i take it its a male fish going up to another fish and doing the shake?

i have a melanochromis that does this to any new fish i put in the tank

[newbees]

yea thats true, they have been pretty agro too, some of the fights get quite intense. i just thought it could be a seasonal thing as they have only just started and nothing has changed? thanks for the help

[ryanjury]

It is a displaying type behaviour for breeding/fighting you should notice when they start breeding as the females will be holding or you will see the male/female going around in circles in a pit in the gravel..

Unfortunately ice blues are exceptionally aggressive so they will probably fight until they kill each other or die of old age Ok that is a bit of an over exaggeration the fighting may settle slightly after they have sorted out who is boss, but do watch the ice blues for aggression, I have seen males take over half a 6ft tank and not let a single fish into it..

[smidey]

i think it's more to do with trying to entice the female into breeding, agression is also part of that.... no means yes 8)