Bangaii cardinal

My bet is the smaller one has a mouthful of eggs and is brooding.

Either that or they are both males, and the bigger one is starting to show his dominance.

 

Following

 

I used to have 3 of them and they were all happy together. Then one died (female I assume) and the remaining two would always fight when they saw each other. Now I have only one because the other was hiding all the time.

 

This

 

If he is brooding his jaw will look distended or squared out, if he is the female can be very protective of him.

 

I think they are a pretty nasty fish to their own species. I had 3, 2 paired up and bred a few times, so I knew the sex of 2 of them. The third was forced to live in the tank corners.
Eventually the female ended up killing the male, she knocked him around for a couple of days after he released the brood of babies. He hadn't eaten for a couple weeks so was in a weakened state.

A month later she terrorized the third Bangaii to death.

I still have the female, she is pretty mean. She makes clicking noises whenever a fish gets near her spot, but stops short of attacking.

 

Bummer, I was hoping somebody was pregnant. I don't think he can eat if he's holding. You would probably know if he was, his chin would be jutting out and he would look different to you.

 

A year ago I had a pair. I ended up getting 7 babies. I believe the male holds. My male died 2 days after spitting the babies out. Babies all but one lived. My female was twice the size of the male. She was very territorial to any cards I added.