For many animals, habitat quality is one of the most significant factors in determining access to resources and general safety, and becomes even more important when the habitat serves as a potential breeding ground. As a result, many animals invest a great deal of time and energy defending their territories from conspecific and heterospecific intruders that compete for suitable habitats. The convict cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) is an aggressive member of the Cichlidae family in which monogamous pairs defend territories that include nest sites by chasing and harassing intruders. As such, we hypothesized that pairs may be sensitive to the quality of a given habitat and capable of altering their defensive behavior in response. To test our hypothesis, two different environments were created in experimental aquaria. A ‘high-quality’ tank contained an opaque PVC nest site that hid individuals and eggs/fry inside while a ‘low-quality’ tank had a clear PVC nest site with a visible interior. Subjects were given time to form pairs, and then assessed for their levels of aggression in one of the two habitat treatments by introducing a juvenile conspecific intruder. The number of aggressive behaviors (bites, chases, displays) demonstrated from each pair was monitored and recorded. Preliminary data suggests that convict cichlid pairs can adjust their defensive behavior and will invest less in defending a lower quality habitat than a higher quality one.