Well this is not at all an unusual occurrence; sometimes a male and female, especially convicts, only enter a marriage of convenience and just get along long enough to procreate and then once the fry are free swimming, fight all the time.

My female constantly would bite my male in the face, left a few marks, then he got fed up with it and constantly chased her and took over all parental duties. I had to rehome in her in my 20 gallon so she would'nt get killed. I'm sure this happens all the time in the wild, but the difference is that there the female can easily swim away. In a glass box she's like a lamb to the slaughter.

If you don't want to wake up to a dead fish, I'd say either remove her or get a divider. Or you could remove the object they are fighting over- the fry. With the absence of fry to care for, they will be all horny again.

 

^And have more fry and the same thing might repeat lol.

 

I think this happens because of small tanks. In large tanks, the female constantly nips the male when he swims close to the cave to keep him on perimeter duty. In small tanks, the system does not work so you end up with a battered male or battered female.

Seeing convicts work in a large tank is a sight to behold, the female constantly keeps the male on patrol.

Just one more reason to give these guys some tank space :thumb:

 

I agree with Ahud but at the same time I dont think the space is always the reason. My Male bred once before and it was in a 30 gallon and he was by far the biggest and baddest fish in the tank. The Female would nudge him and let him know its time to get back to Patrol but at the same time he was still the most protective of the fry. She started to eat some of them and I figured she was just doing the mouth washing thing and then the next day she ended up with missing fins. So i removed her and then reintroduced her and he killed her once she was reintroduced he looked at her like an intruder and not his mate. The bond was broken so the Male kept protecting the fry but he definitely killed the Female because she was endangering the Fry.

 

I have a similar problem but seems like the female is protecting the fry better and the male is a little smaller and has cuts on him and is hiding from her now as she swims around the tank with the fry, there in a 55 gallon but should I remove the female or the male? I’m worried if I remove one the one that stays will eat the fry or I won’t be able to put them back in together later. I have a divider but the fry can still swim thru it and would only separate the two parents from each other. What should I do?

 

If the aggression gets bad enough that you are worried the female will seriously injure or even kill the male? Then I would put up a tank divider to keep the male safe.