What size can EBAs breed at?

[Longmayitreign]

About four or five weeks ago I got six more EBAs because the ones that I already had were males. I live in Toronto and I couldn't find any for a while (apparently the biggest local breeder stopped or something), so when I found six of them I bought them immediately. I put them in a quarantine 15gal (it's temporary) and they were pretty stressed and got ich about three days after, of which I treated with the sensitive treatment levels just to be safe. Because of this it took longer for it to go away, about two weeks. I'm still keeping them in there for an extra two weeks just in case it comes back. Anyway, almost right after the ich went away the biggest male started chasing four of the others to one top corner, protected a rock, and started doing shaky dances and staying very close to with what I'm assuming is a female (they are fish so I'm allowed to do that lol) That went on for another week but he started tearing the tails of some of the others so I put in a large size mesh box for the other four, leaving the two alone with a small calvus I had to separate from my tang tank (they don't mind him). Now at all times there is always one or the other over a flat rock at the side of the tank and they will switch places every few minutes. So from their courting behavior (flaring of fins, shaking, gentle lip locking, etc), how they are guarding a rock, and how they are different genders, I'm gonna guess that they have paired up. But I'm very confused because the male is between two and a half to three inches and the female is two and a half inches. Also they were with me for about a month and at the store for a month (the guy told me) so that's a very quick pair-up.

So what size are they supposed to be sexually mature?

 

[Zanzag]

That's about the size my regular blue acara were when they first paired up

 

[duanes]

2.5" is not too small to breed. Because on farms many fish are raised in situations of high concentrations, where growth is somewhat stymied by those concentrations, so size has little to do with actual age, as you may have experienced .
Beside that, many cichlids will breed young if things are right. I have had many you would not expect, spawn at small sizes.

 

[Longmayitreign]

Oh, okay thanks I'm usually an Africans person so I'm not that familiar with breeding sa/ca cichlids

 

[Ogertron3000]

I've had EBAs breed at that size too, they went through a period of regular spawning for a few months then stopped. They started again about a year later but I never raised any of the fry, they weren't very protective of them against the other fish in the tank for some reason. I expected cichlids to be more aggressive but they didn't seem to care that the other fish treated the babies as snacks.

 

[duanes]

At the moment I have a wild caught spawning pair of Andinoacara coerleopunctatus, very close cousin to the blue acara (Andinoacara pulcher)(and EB acara, a line bred form).
The coerleopunctatus are seasonal spawners, spawning during the dry season(Jan-thru April) here in Panama, so usually once per year.
My pair have taken over half of a 180 gal tank, they are forcefully driving all other fish out of the fry rearing area, with the pair in the tank there are 10 other Andinoacara, 2 tetras, a Pleco and a large Goby.


2 videos below
Panamanian Tank
Flashlight Andinoacara fry

 

[Longmayitreign]

They definitely paired up because there are fry now.

They seem to bee eating the algae on the side of the tank, I put in first bites but I can't tell if they are eating it because they don't go far from their parents and I cant see their mouths open.
From what I have read most websites say to keep them with their parents for about two weeks, and others say longer. So I'll do that.