[Mr Murray]

Here's something unusual; I've got four Geo Tapajos in a mixed cichid tank - two males, a female and a smaller undecided one. Last week the dominant male and female bred for the first time, guarded the eggs and both fish then took the wrigglers into their mouths. The sub-dominant male then started hassling the pair in what almost seemed like courtship behaviour, which I took to be just showboating because he realised neither of the holding pair could do much about it except try to push him away (mostly the dominant male did this). I did notice a couple of times that this caused the female to spit one or two wrigglers out and assumed they got snapped up.
This morning, I noticed the sub-dominant male appeared to be holding as well and did not eat at feeding time, despite being interested in the food. He had also calmed down a lot and all four Tapajos were swimming around the tank in a group. By this evening, the female was no longer holding and was feeding normally, while the two males still appear to be holding and staying pretty close together.
Has anyone come across this sort of behaviour before?

 

[Auballagh]

Welcome to Cichlid-forum! And yes, that does seem interesting. Unfortunately, I've never kept the Tapajos 'Red' before. The only Geophagines I have kept were a WC 1M/5F harem of Geophagus crassilabris. And no, mine never did anything like you describe, (the male in my own harem group was actually quite a thug). Cichlids just never seem to run out of unusual tricks in the aquarium to surprise us.
Thanks for sharing!