MbunaFan Posted March 3, 2006 Report Share Posted March 3, 2006 My dominant male Akai was "dancing" for what I'm assuming is a female Akai, but she just didn't seem interested. I thought that maybe it was do to too many distractions by the other fish, so I took my four Akai out of the 90g and into a 33g by themselves. The behaviour continued for a couple of days, but now nothing. They seem to have too much fun swimming around the rocks to be interested in each other (I do weekly water changes and have the temperature around 28C). Now I've noticed that my Borleyi has also started "dancing", yet again the female does not seem interested at all. What to do? Maybe feed them some hormones? (just kiddin) Or are male fish generally more horny than females (just like people)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted March 3, 2006 Report Share Posted March 3, 2006 I'm not sure what a Akai is, do you happen to know the full name? How large are these fish? Are you sure they are sexually mature? The male might be dancing but the female might not be ready yet. How long has this behaviour been going on? Sometimes it just takes time for them to actually spawn. Also are you sure your other "Akai" is a female? Are you sure what you are seeing is spawning behaviour and not dominance behaviour between a dom. male and a sub. dom. male? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOSStile Posted March 3, 2006 Report Share Posted March 3, 2006 (edited) My dominant male Akai was "dancing" for what I'm assuming is a female Akai, but she just didn't seem interested. Now I've noticed that my Borleyi has also started "dancing", yet again the female does not seem interested at all. She sounds like my wife, all the dancing, no interest, time to use the tried and true cloroform method.... Anyway the females have a knack of looking disinterested. True breeding behaviour is when tha male is chasing everyone away and the female isn't nearly so anxious to swim away; when she starts circling over a spot on the bottom, she is laying eggs and swimming around to pick them up. Males will continue to @$$ wag at them for a long time afterward. PS don't always be sure that the male knows the other fish is a female. I had a known male Zebra Obliq and known male red empress doing the dirty dance with each other for over an hour, basically stopped watching then, straight sex is best in my book. Edited March 3, 2006 by HOSStile Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9outfit Posted March 4, 2006 Report Share Posted March 4, 2006 "Akai"... possibly Acei? Pseudotropheus Acei Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOSStile Posted March 4, 2006 Report Share Posted March 4, 2006 "Akai"... possibly Acei? Pseudotropheus Acei If it is say a yellow tailed Acei it is a lttle more difficult than some to determine gender, the one doing the dance, well that is the horny male, he usually has a little more blue and slightly longer pointy dorsal fin, the female is the bored one eating bon bons and watching soap operas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MbunaFan Posted March 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 Thanks for all the replies. Yes, its' P. acei that I was talking about. Sorry. All the Male/Female behaviour described by your replies is what I was seeing, but not any more (and no holding female either). I'm pretty sure it's a male and female. The male is a bit larger (about 4") and darker in colour while the other one is about 3-3 1/2" and a lighter blue. Then I have another one that's about 3-3 1/2", also lighter in colour, but I'm guessing it's a subdominant male, just going by the behaviour with the others. The last one I'm guessing is also a male, but lowest in rank and also quite a bit smaller. Only about 2 1/2"long, but a bit darker color again. However, all the others have more say than he does. My C. borleyi are about 5" for the male, all coloured up; the female is about 3 1/2 to 4". Again, he had stopped chasing her around and was actually just swimming with her, waiting to get her attention, then "dancing" and trying to get her to follow him. But she just wasn't interested. But like you guys said, maybe it's a subdominant male that's not showing any color. Or maybe she's just not mature enough yet. I really don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cichlidsinoh Posted April 4, 2006 Report Share Posted April 4, 2006 Female has to be ripe as it is called and have eggs in her to lay...he is just demonstrating for her right now to encourage ripeness...try this when you do next water change make the water about 2 degrees or so cooler then you normally have the tank. This stimulates the lake during the rainy season and turns the oxygen level in the lake which triggers spawning. The rainy season just ended in Malawi, so lots of breeding will be going on in the lake. I had to do this when I first got all my wild breeders in, and now they are every 30 days or so...good luck Nick-Cichlids In Ohio As far as the Borleyi goes I have a wild group from Kadango and they are very hard to get to spawn. The male is 4.5-5.0 and has a bright blue face and the reddish body, white tipped dorsal. Females stay the greyish brown with orange fins....so you may have a lot of males if you are seeing tints of blue on the face. Trying to help.....nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAlberta Posted April 4, 2006 Report Share Posted April 4, 2006 Women are sometimes like that :shock: Ha ha Dave :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MbunaFan Posted April 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 (edited) Female has to be ripe as it is called and have eggs in her to lay...he is just demonstrating for her right now to encourage ripeness...try this when you do next water change make the water about 2 degrees or so cooler then you normally have the tank. This stimulates the lake during the rainy season and turns the oxygen level in the lake which triggers spawning. The rainy season just ended in Malawi, so lots of breeding will be going on in the lake. I had to do this when I first got all my wild breeders in, and now they are every 30 days or so...good luck Nick-Cichlids In OhioAs far as the Borleyi goes I have a wild group from Kadango and they are very hard to get to spawn. The male is 4.5-5.0 and has a bright blue face and the reddish body, white tipped dorsal. Females stay the greyish brown with orange fins....so you may have a lot of males if you are seeing tints of blue on the face. Trying to help.....nick Thanks Nick, I'll try that with the next water change. I definitely have a male and female borleyi on my hands, the male has a blue face, yellow body, white on the tip of his dorsal fin and the blue in his fins starts to "glow" when he's trying to impress his woman. Quite the sight. The female is like you said, greyish-silver with yellow fins and at least an inch smaller than her man. Maybe she's just not ready yet. Edited April 24, 2006 by MbunaFan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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