Emergency!!!

[DHill33]

So my male and female convict cichlids recently spawned and the fry have been free swimming for 2 days. My wife and I removed the fry from the parent tank into their own tank to make it easier to keep up with them and raise them up. Since then, the male has been extremely aggressive towards her, chasing her all around the tank relentlessly. Now she’s at the top of the tank behind the filter intake hiding just kind of bobbing around. Why is my male doing this to her? They’ve never been aggressive to each other as long as they’ve been in the tank together. Is this “normal” convict behavior? It’s almost as if he’s acting out because the fry aren’t in the tank with them anymore, because before my wife and moved the fry the male and female were exhibiting excellent parental care.

 

[Autumnsky]

Could be the case, he's thinking he didn't lose them, so she must have.

If you have a very large net, you might just get him in the net in a time out for a little while. Give her a chance to recover maybe. Disclaimer, I am not a Cichlid expert but have heard of this with some fish in general before.

Also a word of caution that putting him in the tank with the fry, he might actually eat them, fearing the dangerous situation. idnk, but I saw something similar happen with my Angel babies. Was told that in a fear situation, they can eat their babies to get the nutrition and not let anything else get them. Just what I was told.

Maybe someone with better advise can help!