My cichlids were lip locking?

Question

I have a fish tank with many different cichlids,my two rainbow cichlids were lip locking..Are they mating or fighting?

Answer 1

lol!!...haha...im guessimg mating, bcause when fish fight one of them ( or both) end up dead most of the time

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Answer 2

Hi,

It could be both, it could be a male and female preparing to spawn or two males fighting so can't say.

Answer 3

It depends as it can be both.  If they lip lock then swim past each other and slap each other's tails, as if to kind of rub up against each other, then it is probably a mating dance (which doesn't necessarily mean mating and sometimes fish of the same s*x do this dance).  If they lip lock and it gets so rough where one of them is pushing the other one all around the tank to the point where it seems that one of them might fly out of the tank, then that is aggression.  

If it is aggression, then you need to figure out if it is just a territorial thing because of the tank being too small or overstocked or perhaps the water levels are a little off causing them to be a bit agitated, or if it is that they hate each other.  If it is that they hate each other, it does not matter how big of a tank you get, one will just keep trying to kill the other one.  The way to tell is to try and alter the circumstances of your tank - do a water change and change the decorations around a bit.  This causes the fish to think they are in a new habitat and they start over with the dominance.  And if your tank is over stocked, see if you can put some of the other fish into another temporary setup to see if the two get along when they have more room.  If not, then you may need to separate them all together.