Breeding Pair Of Convicts Who Are On 4th Batch Of Babies...

[didz04]

Hi, as you see in the title i have breeding pair of convicts that keeping laying eggs, and was hoping to split them up and give in the female to the pet store.
My question is, will the male get on alright with the other cichlids more if the female is gone as well as the babies, or will he act more aggressive as he might get stressed because of his partner and babies disappeared?
At the moment my other cichlids swim together without any fights and the male cichlid attacks them for the defence of his babies, however will he start swimming normally around with them like nothings happened if i give in the female and the babies.
I wanted to keep the male as he is really nice looking with the red tail and nice blue edge colour on end of tail, this happened when i start doing more little water changes and also start feeding them bloodworm everyday, other than cichlid pellets.
Thanks in advance...

 

[didz04]

Can anyone help...please?

 

[snowflake311]

Convicts are aggressive fish. When breeding they are much more so. If you split them up you would have a better chance of adding other fish but no way could you have a community. How big is your tank? You could only keep other aggressive fish with them. I have seen them live with African cichlids before just fine. They can hold their own with larger fish too. depending on the size of your tank you could have other fish with them.

Yes splitting up the pair will take out he drama in the tank and the male should settle down but don't expect him to be an angle.

 

[Wills]

Yeah if you take the female back he will calm down due to no babies or breeding. What other fish are in the tank and how big is it? You mentioned other cichlids so guessing its a bigish tank

 

[didz04]

Hi, really thanks so much for the reply, for a moment i was going to get rid of both if needed but now i am going to re-consider. Yeah i have a 47" by 18" by 12" which is about 166 litres, thats what it said on aquarium calculator. I have some malawi and Johanni cichlid in there with a small yellow belly slider. I know you think that the yellow belly slider may attack or eat the fish, but he doesn't attack any fish as he is really peaceful with them. It is the convicts that are the ones that try to attack or mainly push him away from the babies, however being a 4 ft tank he doesn't really go that side as he has got all the space needed to swim around. He gets pushed away by the male convict mainly however he knows not to go that side as when he sees the convicts he backs off. I know also people will ask that he needs to breath and needs to be onland, so he has his own big docking port for him to sit on and i take him outside in the back garden every 2-3 days.
All the fish are fed on blood worms and turtle has his own food that i feed him. He is hand fed also and some malawis feed from my hand too.
Also all the cichlids are only small, from around 3 inches big, there are only 8 cichlids and one turtle altogether.
Thanks...

 

[didz04]

Also is there any chance of a small Fire Eel to be in with these cichlids and when he/she does get too big i will move the Fire Eel to my other free setup. If it is not compatible at all then i will still buy one for my other setup, don't worry i have seen the requirements and know how big they get but have seen people put down that they are compatible with cichlids when small. Only thing i'm worried about is if he digs up under my black sand and takes out my plants which i have seen that they are known to do.
I can't see it happening at the moment but if people have had experience where the yellow belly slider turtle attacks my fish including when living with them since small then i can move him to the other tank setup with my future Fire Eel.
Thanks in Advance...