Why did Malawi cichlids dig holes?

I checked up on my hubby's malawies this morning and found that they have gug holes under the rocks. Can anyone tell me why they do this??

 

I could be wrong, but that sounds like part of the spawning/breeding process.

 

At what age do they begin breeding. I don't know how old they are but they are about
4 to 5cm long. Do Malwies eat their eggs and their fry??

Please can someone help me????

 

I'm not sure on those, but you might look up their species profile at cichlid forum

 

They hold their eggs in their mouth...it's called mouth brooding. YES they eat their fry.
It all depends on which species you have some breed at 2" and other not until they are full grown at 10', like the blue dolphins.
Digging is a territorial thing, and yes when sexually mature they do dig a lot more.
Make sure your rocks are touching the bottom of the tank, sometimes they dig too much and the rocks fall which could crack the tank.
Anymore questions ask away. I have been keeping MalawI cichlids for 2 years & have learned a lot.

 

Thanx for your help.
I am not sure which species they are, but 2 of them are a blue-grey with black stripes and the others are a pale yellow coulor.

 

If you can post some pics we can ID your cichlids.
They do love to dig, and yes as above its a territorial thing, my 2 big diggers right now are my 2 males that are on opp sides of the tank that are the big kings of the tank. They are very destructive if your rocks aren't safely stacked. My guys will dig to the glass, so I am always covering up their holes, and very cautious when I put the rocks in from vaccuming, I try and retry to see if they can fall.

If the one in the left picture has yellow in it on the bottm right its a mel aurartus, the one on the left in the right picture looks like a bumble bee cichlid, if they have yellow in them.

The others I couldn't really make out, are they solid yellow?

 

If the one in the left picture has yellow in it on the bottm right its a mel aurartus, the one on the left in the right picture looks like a bumble bee cichlid, if they have yellow in them.

The others I couldn't really make out, are they solid yellow?

Yes they are solid yellow and have two white spots on their analfins.

 

Yes they are solid yellow and have two white spots on their analfins.[/QUOTET

That's not labs then, they don't have white spots on their analfins. I would say met zebra, but they are yellow..Looks like female Pseudotropheus saulosi.

 

How do you tell male from female??

 

How do you tell male from female??

If its Pseudotropheus saulosI depending on the size, the males are blue and the females are yellow. However, the male goes through a transformation from yellow to blue when he is a juvie. That is w/ some of the species the males will be a completly diff color. With the KenyI the girls are blue and boys yellow.
Now w/ other species its different markers, for instance the female crabro is lighter color w/ black bars, the boy will turn black on much of his body.
The labs have another way, the boy will get a deeper black stripe, and black on analfins, where the female is lighter black stripe on the dorsal fin, and almost always no black on the analfin.
Then the zebras, color and egg spot numbers are their markers.

 

x You have really helped me alot. What does 2 egg spots mean?

 

x You have really helped me alot. What does 2 egg spots mean?

No problem, the egg spots depends on the species.

 

The bumble bee ones also have those egg spots. On the yellow ones, the one has 2 spots and the other one has 1 spot and they are the same size. I have noticed that the yellow ones also have a spot on each gill, towards the top of the gills.

 

The male and female bumble bees do have egg spots. Also the Pseudotropheus saulosI females have egg spots, and a spot near their gill.

 

Thanks so much for all your help!!

 

No problem

 

Yes they are solid yellow and have two white spots on their analfins.[/QUOTET

That's not labs then, they don't have white spots on their analfins. I would say met zebra, but they are yellow..Looks like female Pseudotropheus saulosi.

Yellow labs do have eggs spots, at least one.
ALL male mbuna species have more eggs spots.

 

I haven't noticed any egg spots on my labs, but that could be because my lab boys have a lot of black on their analfins.