240 gallon convict breeder

[copeina]

With convicts, you should be able to tell 99.9999999% males from females. Females have pink or yellow flecks on their flanks. (say that 5 times fast), whereas males have just the stripes. This goes for pink convicts as well, so unless you are buying some strain that is so far gone, you could be guaranteed 5 pairs from 10 fish.

If you want to work in a 240, that is great. I keep mine in a 15 and they breed non-stop. I was at an auction once and a pair bred in the plastic bag on the auction table. I suspect if you kept them on a damp sheet of newspaper, they would find a way!

Good luck with your project!

/Kris

 

[JeremyD]

I have about 12 cons in my 70g. All of breeding size and age. And trust me, they DO breed in there. I'd think your 240g would be WAY understocked. Get a smaller tank if you want cons. There are alot of better options for such a large tank.

 

[yossie_ika]

man...for 240...I would breed bigger cihclids.....but it's your tank....and you get to put whatever species u like to breed in

 

[fufanu360]

I have about 12 cons in my 70g. All of breeding size and age. And trust me, they DO breed in there. I'd think your 240g would be WAY understocked. Get a smaller tank if you want cons. There are alot of better options for such a large tank.

thats insane, dont they fight alot?

 

[fishdudein]

Also the TYank and turtle are not mine, They are at my school, I tried to breed my glofish but to no avail, if not for me the tank would go unused so its not a waste, I cant get 2 60 gallons or even 4 30 gallons, this is all I have to work with, I have 1 240 gallon tank and my task is to entertain students and produce feeders, I'm paying for all the fish out of pocket so they need to be cheep, and convicts are the cheapest cichlids I know of.

Everybody seems to be missing the point here, that these are not his personal fish, they are in a classroom and he is trying to set up a tank in an economical fashion that will give kids the basic understanding of what we are all hooked on here, the wonders of aquarium fishkeeping. If you want to set up a tank for kids with fish that are guaranteed to breed (not just livebearers, which drop their young, eat what they can of them, and let the young fend for themselves), I personally don't think he could pick a better fish than convicts. Picking out and defending a nesting site, spawning, taking care of the eggs and the fry after they hatch...what a wonderful thing to experience in a classroom. And with convicts, it's not a matter of "will they breed?", it's more like "how many times will they breed this semester?". I can see a whole bunch of future hobbyists coming along after being in opcn's classroom. It doesn't have to be anything fancy to get kids interested, just something sure-fire. If they decide to get into the hobby on their own later and try some other fish, that's great, but even if they don't they will still remember having those fish in the classroom.

You are on the right track here, opcn, it's a great thing you are doing.

 

[dothedew]

How about breeding oscars, they are much more personable. Maybe you could even split the tank with a divider and do breeding oscars on one side and breeding green terrors on the other, those are two of the most personable cichlids.

 

[JeremyD]

I have about 12 cons in my 70g. All of breeding size and age. And trust me, they DO breed in there. I'd think your 240g would be WAY understocked. Get a smaller tank if you want cons. There are alot of better options for such a large tank.

thats insane, dont they fight alot?

Yep. Thats the fun. The tank is filled with agression. Thats what keeps it interesting. There are plenty of fish to spread the aggression around, so there is never any one fish singeld out and beaten up.

 

[fufanu360]

^^ so its almost like an african tank eh, they jsut spread the aggresion, thats cool!

also, dothedew, you said breeding oscars.... that is probly one of the hardest cichlids to breed man, it wouldnt be a very good thing because it would be so hard and expensive.... alos you would need a HUGE tank... (i am probly wrong about the hardest cich to breed)

 

[Opcn]

Well they raised the price of cons on me, went from 3 dollars each to 7 (LPS turned into an LFS) so I only got 2 pair, females and males were easy to tell apart. ATM the males are pretty solitary and the fems are swimming around together, I added a gold serum who is ~5" long and the cons(1.5-2 inches each) are set up in one half of the tank with him in the other. I did find JD's for $1.33 but they are way to small to be expecting breeding anytime soon, and oscars take time to breed aswell, Cons are quick and easy.

 

[mwm]

Good deal on the JD's! Im surprised cons were so much. My old LFS (RIP It cloed down ) a week before they closed they gave me an adult con pair for free it was cool of them btu i couldnt house them for long so i gave them away and they sold me a adult breeding pair of JD for $20
I love convicts they are awesome your setup sounds cool i hope it works out. You shoud plant it to

 

[fufanu360]

plants wouldnt last with cons dude

 

[yvez9]

what if the turtle won't eat the fish?

some pets get lazy when fed dead food and pellets all the time. You should start off with one pair in a smaller tank. If the turtle eats the fry and could eat more, then try to figure out how much more it could eat and get the corresponding pairs and move them all to the 240

4 pairs could give you 200-300 fry a month. Thats 6-10 fish per day for the turtle.

 

[Opcn]

oh that turtle eats fish, like mad. And if the cons produced that many fry we would add most of them at a very small size and grow them on in the turtle tank untill thy were big enought to be eaten,

 

[fishdudein]

What kind of turtle is it that you have,opcn?

 

[Opcn]

a chinese soft shelled