Convict Tankmates

[cdub614]

Hello, I'm new to the forum and I'm quite addicted to this site! I couldn't tell you how many hours I've spent browsing around, looking at everyone's pics and loving all the fish! I searched for a thread on convict tankmates, but I couldn't really find specific answers, so here's my situation:

I have a 55g tank (Rena XP2 canister) with 4 female convict cichlids and I'm wondering what else I can put in there with them. I adopted them from a friend that moved and couldn't keep them, but he gave me 25 of them! About 15 of them were babies, about 1/2 to 1 inchers. I kept them all for about 6 weeks, but obviously way too many fish in the tank and there were 2 bonded pairs in the group. Very aggressive, when one of the pairs had some babies and the rest of them were forced to crowd in less than 25% of the other side of the tank! I ended up taking out all of the males and all of the babies (donated to the LFS, happy to say I think most have been sold now) and kept the 4 biggest ladies (I think I'm going to name them after the girls on Sex and the City... )

I tried to put a pleco in with them, they ate his eyes (yuk!) and a few weeks later tried to add a chinese algae eater, since they dart around so much I thought he'd be quick enough to hide, but they ended up eating him. I would love to get a couple of severums, but I now know that my tank is too small for them. I think Blue Rams are really pretty, but from what I've read so far, I don't think they could stand up to the cons. Now I'm thinking that I should have just kept a few more of the females, but I would like to mix it up a little. I'm not really crazy about the pink cons either.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[minxfishy]

Defo no no on the rams, they wouldnt stand a chance and to be honest from what your describing Im not sure much else will stand up to them either.

Possibly firemouths, but they would need to be large enough to withstand the aggression.

I would also suggest that whatever you try to introduce, you remove the cons from the tank (keep them in a bucket), re-arrange the tank and then put the new fish in 1st, then put the cons back in, it might help as they will have to make new territories, which is your current problem, the females see the tank as theres and anyone else is an intruder and will be dealt with accordingly.

 

[cdub614]

Thanks for the feedback. Actually since I've taken all of the males out of the tank the gals have been behaving quite nicely. Of course having their own flower pots I'm sure helps! They still chase each other around a little, but no one is dealing with nipped fins anymore (hooray!)

I will definitely take them out and rearrange before I add any tankmates in the future, that's a great idea. However that won't be happening for several weeks probably since I'm still dealing with some water chemistry issues... ugh. That will definitely be a new post if I can't get it fixed soon.

Thanks again!

 

[electric yellow]

I have 4 convicts and they have their own lil pods. They were bought and put in there 2yrs ago with their currentmates so all have grown together. I have the following in the tank:

4x convicts (1male 3 girls)
2x electric yellows (2girls)
2x electric blue johannies (1male 1female)
2x yellow tail acies (1male 1 female)

ive found that the convicts are the quiet ones of the tank. As long as they each have their own hiding spots they are fine. I have loads of silk plants in there and also a massive ship wreck. I have split the ship wreck in half so one half is own one end and the other half is down the other end. The plants are all bushy in the middle of the tank to break up line of site. Recently i added a new pod and i am already on my second batch of fry in less that a month. (They ate the first batch all bar one).

I would chose your mates wisely because when they get to maturity or fully grown their agression can really over come their nice charm