OUR First pair Convicts

hi all
Mine and my hubbies white convicts had frys on 16th, their 1st. they had a batch of 80 in community tank, we moved parents and fry to 2ft hospital tank
this was the 16july2014

this is the 1st august 2014 (now a batch of 76) no belly scrapers. still with parents


Does anyone know when to remove the parents as they still looking after the fry?

 

Unlike some other cichlids,you can keep them with the parents until they start fighting for territory or when they start swimming around without the parents nearby.

 

nice one
keep them with folks till mom starts cleaning spawning site

 

hi guys
thanks guys. but when will the parents start spawning again? will they spawn quicker if we remove the parents? are they doing well as parents as ive read they normally only have 20-40 babies and they had double that and only lost 4... next pair are starting aswel... my pour pleco got sent through the heater last time

 

major problem you need to work out is do you want cons breeding all the time
do you have 2 other tanks to raise babies to a sell able size
if you move parents when they have fry you risk breaking pair bond and will end up with a dead female
I like to leave my fry with parents till they are a decent size and parents are close to breeding again then i remove the fry, female usually is cleaning spawning site and it results in her laying eggs withing 2 days.

 

well yes i'd love it if they breed all the time but only when it's the right time and heathly for them... i have enough tanks and can always go buy more if needed, dont mind. busy getting 3ft grow out tank ready for these little guys will have them in there in about 2 or 3 weeks. dont want to do it now they might get lost in that size tank
and i doubt i'll enjoy doing so much water changes in that size tanks... what ages are the fry when the female starts cleaning spawning sites normally? so i know when to start watching. will they kill the fry if they are felt with the parents and parents start spawning?

 

i used to love breeding my guppies but hate that they eat their babies, so ive fallen in love with convicts and want to start breeding them in abit of a large scale, what kind of a setup would i need and how many pairs? please also keep in mind i tend to sell the fry in 3 stages so i'd need tanks for the 3 different stages... i'm hoping my other pair of albino convicts will have fry very soon as i'm wanting to keep 3 or 4 females or males from this batch and 3 or 4 fry from the other pairs batch 1 sex from each pairs fry for breeding set up... any advice welcome
is it okay that i raise my babies in bare bottom tank (little bit of stones just for show) i've found it's easier to keep clean but i'm worried some babies are getting stressed? i know it's fine with most fish but all fish are different in some ways so i perfer getting second opions

 

first step check you have a market for the fish, cons are great to me and you but they are not really community friendly lil guys
how soon pairs breed maters on size of female, water temp, water changes and size of brood my central american are normally 5 to 6 weeks per spawning
clean bottom works well for me, just paint bottom and sides in a dark color and use flower pots for some cover.
find my pairs get better and better at getting fry numbers up and beleive having two pair of same fish breeding will end up in lots unwanted babies
pairs do not readly eat there fry and you just need to watch as soon as female start chasing babies you need to move them

 

and i forgot
huge filter with sponge to stop them getting sucked in
and huge water changes
smalle fish in large number need plenty food and create epic amount of waste

 

thanks im loving these little guys dont really want to sell of my babies but thats life and atleast they will make someone else very happy, all my babies have been booked already. i know alot of pet shops as well who will want my fish as they have seen all my fish and tell me ive got very good fish they dont get good fish like this from their suppliers...

 

here's an update on how my babies are doing, there is still 76 babies all growing very nicely... just moved babies and parents to 3ft tank, half has sandy gravel and the rest is still barebottom to get babies get used to gravel. been there 2 days and starting to get used to gravel slowly... next pair are getting ready to lay eggs



Parents are also growing nicely

 

hi guy's
what size can i sell these little guy's? there is 76 of them in 3ft and mom and dad are preparing for next set of little ones so i must sell or upgrade to 4ft and i dont have space or money for yet another 4ft, hubby bought one this month already

 

Can always use some of them as feeders,should be able to sell them at around 4-5cm (or around 3 - 3.5 months after birth)

 

No man sis... only use bellow par fish as feeders or deformed fish...

 

lol

Well it's just one way to deal with them if you have too many.

 

True but I don't have the heart to do that.. sold 50 they being picked up the weekend. So problem solved
If any one wants any pm me. Got 20
left to sell

 

Your convicts are just beautiful, wish I had the albino type, only have the black and white. Pity you are in Durban.

 

nice one love seeing central american cichlids being bred locally and finding a home

 

thanks guys... they are just lovely will be sad to see them go but cant wait for next batch to come

 

just an update on our convicts size: mom is 5cm, dad is 8cm and smallest babies is 1cm biggest baby is 2.2cm and growing fast... my dad says i should get a bigish indoor pond for all my babies to grow out in with a heater, because ive got 2 pairs prepairing to breed. what you guys think? would it work? ive always perferred my tanks to see my fishies but this would be cheaper than the tank setups