Convict Delema

[Wingman001]

HI guys I recently whent to the pet shop and they had some rather large 3 4 inch convics, I bought what I thought was a male and a feemale. male had pointed fins and female more rounded.

at the momnet what i thought was the female has turned a grey silver color and chasses the male arround bighting his fin, at the moment the mole just sits in the corner of the tank. His fins ore all torn?

[Wingman001]

some one help me out here?

[small_fry]

sounds like you have 2 males there. when trying to sex cons, the females have colouring around their stomach area as well as some faint colouring on the tail fins.

[Wingman001]

What color do the males and females go when they are ready to bread?
was at the pet shop yesterday there are 7 fish non of them have different colors?

Can I keep more that 1 set of convicts in a tank and will they bread

[small_fry]

when ready to breed, cons will have very distinct colours. for eg, the male's black and white stripes will intensify and the females will do the same except with 1 difference, they will have colouring on their bodies. once they have bread, then the females colour almost disappears and both female and male stripes will look fairly pale.

the pet shop issue; its probably because there are too many, not enough space to define terrortory (sp?) or simply they are not big enough to mate yet. also the lack of presence of the opposite sex will also do that.

in a 2ft & 3ft tank only 1 pair, 4ft & 5ft 2pairs etc.

[Wingman001]

Hi guys

Here are the photo's please help?

this is the so called female:
http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/attachment.php?attachmentid=165&stc=1&d=1243501908

http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/attachment.php?attachmentid=166&stc=1&d=1243501908

This is the male:
http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/attachment.php?attachmentid=167&stc=1&d=1243501908

http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/attachment.php?attachmentid=168&stc=1&d=1243501908

[small_fry]

i will take pics of my male and 3 females tonight and post them.

the pic of the "male" looks like he/she has some redding on the tail part of the body. this is not normal as i have never seen cons like that, even wild caught

[Wingman001]

Hey Guys still need some help? Call the professionals!

[solex69]

I had a breeding pair of convicts before and the clear difference is that the female is smaller than the male, and she does have a slight orange/green/blue colour change on the outskirts of her body & fins. The male's black stripes will intensify as small_fry pointed out. BTW, these fish are the rabbits of the fish world....once you have a pair, they breed like there's no tomorrow

I would suggest you add at least 3 more convicts of the same size to the tank...that should put an end to your one fish being bullied. Study their behaviour and see if you get 2 of them to pair off. You can then remove the rest and put them elsewhere or sell them

Maybe Rowland can confirm the sexing in the pics that you posted? He's the fish guru on here :)

Also, small_fry mentioned a good point...some fish become slightly agressive when they are confined in smaller spaces. I experienced this with mollies (when I just got started in the hobby)...I kinda overstocked a 60l 2footer and one day I added two white mollies. After about 3 - 4 days, I started losing 1 or 2 fish per day. I then decided to monitor the tank for some time and then I started to notice that my mollies were nipping at the other tetras.
So, I hope you have enough swimming space for them

[Wingman001]

Hey guys any other opinions on the pictures?

[small_fry]

here the pics i promised...sorry it took sooo long...been really busy at work..

and sorry about the cleanliness of the glass...too lazy to clean the front...not bad to look at only when taking pics..

the first pic is one of the females that arent breeding at the moment. if you have a look at where the black circle is then you will see some colouring on top of the dorsal fin. this doesnt happen to every female but its something to look out for. the other pics are of my breeding pair of cons (in the same tank). at the moment i was taking these pics they were guarding fry. unfortunately all the fry didnt make it past day number 4 after hatching due to night predators in the tank, i.e. bumble bee cat and nontatus syndodontis.

[Wingman001]

You guys are right there 2 males thanks for the help, poped a female in the tank in in minutes they where friends with a male. have a divider in the tank know between the 2 males.

Thanks for all the support guys, In turms of different colors any other vriety?

[small_fry]

glad to be of some help.....the only other cons out there are the "pink"/albino cons. apparantely they are even more agro than the normal black and white ones...