Black convicts mating and pleco, 10 points

Question

I just bought 2 black convicts today, male seems a bit small than the female, both about a inch long. Why does the female kept trying to bite the male, will they cooperate and breed later?

My pleco is with convicts, it is same length as my flowerhorn but flowerhorn is fatter, will it die if i put it with flowerhorn instead?

Answer 1

Jeffrey,

You've answered so many times on Convicts, how is it you don't know the answer here?

Why does the female keep trying to bite the male?

First are you SURE you have a male and female pair?  Let's assume it is, but the female is bigger.  If you've ever seen with Africans, this happens from time to time as well.  I have seen full grown adult females kill off younger smaller males simply because the male was not ready to handle the situation.  You have to give females some credit in case.  Another possibility is your tank is just too small for these fish.  I think yours is a 29 or something like that, which at their size should be ok.  Try adding in some more decor to provide more boundry areas.

If your flowerhorn is in a bigger tank as it should be, most likely the Pleco would be fine.  What you are not considering is that the Flowerhorn tends to occupy the upper levels of the tank when the Pleco is mostly a bottom feeder.  As the other person mentioned too, a Pleco is an armored catfish and that would offer it some protection should the Flowerhorn get aggressive.

Answer 2

well i dont know about a floerhorn, never had one of those but i have a pleco in my piranha tank thats the same size as the piranhas and its still alivre lol, dont worry plecos are very bony fishes and they dont back down from fights when there threatened, watch this video (not mine)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFXGRVVQ6...

a pleco surviving in a tank with mabye 10 piranhas