Confusing Cichlid behavior

OK, here is the situation. In my 300 gal, I have a crazy psycho male Hoga and his very mellow female. The other fish in the tank dont get out of hand, argue or even go to the bathroom, without the Hoga getting after them or giving his blessing for them to carry on with their duty. The pair have tried to spawn several times with no success. The eggs have always fungused over. With that said, The 2 of them have been moving around the tank, investigating all of the pots and looking like they want to spawn. Tubes are down and they look ready.

Two other occupants in the tank are a 8" Honduran Jag and a 6.5" Honduran Jag. I have been watching these 2 because they have been chummy with each other the last few days. So now its time for confusion #1. To me the larger of the 2 Jags looked female while the smaller one looked male. (and in my experience, I have never seen or had 2 fish spawn where the female has been considerably larger than the male. In fact, the female usually pays no attention to, or she flat out beats the crap out of the smaller male) With that said. This morning the 2 Jags were in one of the pots cleaning it, displaying spawning tendencies. Both tubes are down, and the females (the larger Jag) tubes were all the way down as if she was in the process of laying eggs. So I grabbed the flash light and investigated the pot. Nope, no eggs.

So, this evening I get home from running errands, and I did my usual visit to all my kids. I get to the 300 and the crazy psycho Hoga and his mate have moved into the pot that the Jags recently purchased. And the Jags are trying to get back into their newly purchased home. Wait whats that? Confusion #2!! The entire bottom of the Jags new home,( now being occupied by the crazy psycho Hoga and his mate) is full of tiny little eggs. Mom is aggressively keeping the 2 Jags out, while the male comes and goes has he wishes.

So now for the uber question. Do the eggs in the pot belong to the Hoga's, or the Jags?

So like I said earlier, the male Hoga has been shooting blanks. So if the eggs hatch, does that mean my male Hoga is finally fertile? Or does it mean that they were Jag eggs, and the female Hoga took over and took care of them?

Hence the confusion at this time.

my bet is that the hogas kicked them out when you left and then layed eggs in there, but i am basing this on a situation i had a year ago when i had two breeding pairs of texas cichlids in with a smaller dovii.... I came home from work about a year ago, and I found the dovii had kicked out a pair of texas and was guarding a pot that had some brand new eggs in it. When they hatched I figured that she had just adopted about 60 texas fry. when they reached two-three inches, i found (to my surprise) that they were a dovii / texas cross a dovii stream-lined body with the opaque blueish spots.

so back to my guess,
i think the fish that guards the eggs are the fish that layed them. Either way, if they are fertilized and they hatch, you should have some awesome fish. I look forward to hearing what they are.

Man that is a strange one. No experience with the issue, but I have read on more than one occasion of cichlids parenting eggs/fry that weren't theirs. Then again they are cichlids, anything is possible! I'm going to say jag eggs! Curious to find out whats going on aswell!

Well, today all my questions were answered. My Jag pair bought the house next store, and started a family. So both spawns are side by side. Still kinda odd that the female spawned with a male almost half her size.

Congrats on the double spawn. Hope the Hoga's made it work this time.

Im going to be real curious, if the Hoga eggs hatch. Hoga x Hoga or Hoga x Jag

Congrats on the double spawn!!

Hoga/Jags Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..........

Ya, like my son says, "that would be one UGLY A** fish. Otherwise none as UGAF."

But unfortunately, if they hatch i will have to wait and see if they are true, or if they are UGAF.

madness wrote:Well, today all my questions were answered. My Jag pair bought the house next store, and started a family. So both spawns are side by side. Still kinda odd that the female spawned with a male almost half her size.

IMO that is extremely odd to have the female larger then the male and then lay eggs. In my dealings the males have always been larger then the females. Well, I guess you can chalk this one up to experience. Another chapter of Cichlid behavior.

madness wrote:Im going to be real curious, if the Hoga eggs hatch. Hoga x Hoga or Hoga x Jag

No Hybrids

Ya, no hybrids. Eggs are all looking good so far.

Well here we are, day 3 and it looks like both piles of eggs are going to hatch. Both sets look as though they have little black dots in them.

So i must wonder, "are the hoga fry true"? Maybe he finally got it right. Or did something else get it right? I guess only time will tell.

the saga continues. The Jags either ate their fry or had them taken. But the mom Hoga is being a great mom to her fry. But I still believe that the female Hoga is mothering a bunch of Jag fry. I am going to pull the fry in 2 days. I will update this as the fry grows.

I'd love to see a visual of the current situation, if you have the ability! I'm hoping that they make it!