55 Gal Convict Breeders and tank mates?

So I had this idea.

I hear convicts make good feeders.
I was thinking of breeding convicts for feeders for my Piranha.

I was thinking of putting some convicts in with the Piranha when young (to live short lives) and I will donate some to people / LFS / for sale

I will have a 55 Gal tank.

1. Could convicts (being some will reach full size for breeding) be happy in a 55 Gal?
2. How many convicts should I buy to ensure this process starts?
3. In this tank could I keep any non-convict fish to add variation (not probably for breeding but could work)?

This is 100% just an idea I might not even do it.

55G is plenty big for a pair of cons on their own. To get a pair, the best thing to do is buy atleast 6 and let them pair off on their own. Sooner or later, you will begin to see two of the cons swimming together and even a little rubbing and lip-locking. This will most likely form into a pair so you can return the other 4 cons and then you should have a pair. There is no guarentees until they finally mate, but cons are pretty good about begin prolific breeders.

On a note too, since your planning on making them feeders, make sure you feed the baby cons a nutritious and varied diet. This is the best way to get good nutrition to your piranha. The fact that lfs's dont ever really feed their feeders is one of the main reasons why they are pointless to buy from the lfs, because they are offer no to little nutritional benefit to the fish being fed...

Ox

Yeah for sure ... I do plan to keep some in good and healthy condition.

It's not entirely I see them as 100% food I chose them because they are also nice looking fish as well.

Generally my Piranha doesn't just tear them apart he will peg one off easily though.

So i am more looking to have fish in his tank that I know are diseased free.

Growing my own seems the best way to acheive that ...

and the fact that I will let a percentage live kinda makes it feel like I have created a artifle life cycle.

I have plans to start a livebearer tank for the same reasons you are looking into the cons. I wish to give my large cichlids some work when catching their food and also want the food to be disease free and healthy. The only way to ensure this is to breed them yourselves. I did think trying to do cons for awhile, but I dont want to start breeding so much that I can't feed the babies quick enough to the large tank and I end with 100's of young cons that I can't get rid of (most lfs's can get funny about buying cons from you as they are quite common to begin with and usually not a huge market for them)

Ox

What are you thinking of breeding?

I havent decided what species yet. I was gonna do guppies, but I figured I would wait until I got to the lfs to see what livebearers looked to be in the best stock.

Ox

Let me know what you find out ... Be good to see what someone else discovers.