How can you tell when the african cichlids is getting ready to have eggs?

Cichlid Breeding, Fish

Katherine L wants to know:


Fish are making a mess with the gravel in the tank.

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4 Comments For This Post

  1. Bob Says:
    July 13th, 2009 at 12:21 am

    Have you seen any of your africans doing the “shimmer” dance, that is a big sign of possibly breeding, aside from that the only other sign i could think of is that they are very fat looking and that their vent is visible near their anal region.

  2. cc_woman Says:
    July 16th, 2009 at 9:19 am

    It depends on the african cichlid. Mouth brooders, will often swim around shaking their tails for each other. When the female has eggs in her mouth and has her mouth by the male while he is doing this, that means he is fertilizing the eggs in her mouth. Egg layers like convicts(though not african) will clean surfaces to lay eggs, and move rocks around to make dips in the gravel to keep their fry. Most cichlids will dance around each other when they are getting ready to mate. If you see the male and female acting in this behavior and cleaning smooth surfaces from things like rocks or other decorations, they most likely are getting ready to mate.

  3. marshallsgirl22 Says:
    July 16th, 2009 at 10:12 pm

    African cichlids move pebbles all the time. That doesn’t mean eggs or babies…

  4. =Matt= Says:
    July 19th, 2009 at 5:59 am

    their aggression goes up and the male will constantly pester the female

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