My Jewel Cichlid

Question
I have a 4-5" Jewel Cichlid (don't know the breed), a 6-7" Jack Dempsey (not sure breed), and a 8-9" Midas (male). The Jewel is a darker colored Jewel Cichlid, with the stripes being predominant and a brown shade to it. The Jack Dempsey is a darker color, with the spots blue and very virabnt.

The reason I am bringing these up is to get more informaton to you. I currently have a 55 gal. tank. With two other catfish and a pleco in there, but I'm not worried about that. I have noticed in the past couple of days, that the Midas and Jewel Cichlid have been attacking my Jack non-stop. This has just been recently, I have had them in the tank for over 3 months now, and no problems up until this point. I recently got a divider, to seperate the Jack from the Midas and Jewel.

Well, I recently noticed that the first day apart, the Midas went crazy digging holes in my underwater bell, and the Jewel Cichlid has been digging a hole in the corner of the tank, next to my underwater cave. I connected the bell and the cave with a slate rock that hangs from both, and a slate rock that hangs from the corner of the tank to the cave, just for cover and an extra cave idea, and both of them have been moving rocks like crazy.

The question (main): My Jewel Cichlid has been doing a "shaking" motion, such as if a person were to have a seizure, every once in a while. Then, because of the Midas aggression, he chases her, nips her, and she turns around and tries to do the same, and then they are fine. Granted, his aggression and size, obviously, and what worries me, but I am wondering if this is the way that the Jewel Cichlid tries t mate. They don't lip lock, though they do meet face to face every so often, but the Jack and Midas used too, and not anymore with the divider, since the incident occuring the tag-teaming of the Jewel and Midas, it doesn't happen anymore. I was wondering, how do you know what signs to look for that they are ready or wanting to mate?

Thank you, John!

Answer
Hi John,
 The shaking is a sign of courtship and/or aggression.  It is often how a male cichlid attempts to tell a female cichlid that he is interested.  A male of one species of cichlid an also use it on a male of another species of cichlid to tell him "watch out buddy".

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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