Convicts Spawned

[dcarmor927]

Well my convicts eggs hatched sometime sunday, there were about 50 fry that i could see...now i think i can only see 15

I have them in a 55 gallon tank with a pleco and salvini, but the salvini is the only one with balls enough to go over to the cons territory every now and then...is it possible that he's eaten them or are the fry just dieing on me??

Thanks in advance

Edit: Also how often do they have fry? if i were to just siphon out the little ones would they reproduce again soon, or would it throw them all off?

 

[shroob]

The parents might have moved the fry, however if you can still see 15 this might not be the case.

It could be the salvini eating them, or it could even be the parents. Cons are normally good parents but if its their first time then its quite common with NW cichlids to not do to well, taking a few attempts to perfect things.

Cons will have fry as often as they can , you can syphon the remaining ones off if you wish, I'd leave them with the parents, let them get some experience. Have you thought about what you're going to do with the fry, there isn't much demand for convicts so most LFS are reluctant to take them. Another problem is that if you remove the fry, in most cases the male is ready to spawn before the female so takes out his aggression on her. So keep an eye on the female as the males aggression may get too much.

 

[Athena]

With my pair it's roughly every 2 weeks that the female lays eggs - most of the time the male eats the fry after 3 - 5 days. Only once in the past year have they allowed some of their fry to survive - I have about about 10 (or 12), month-old fry (hard to count them as they move about so quickly!).

As Shroob mentioned, the male can get quite aggressive towards the female if she's not in the mood for spawning - it has caused a lot of problems recently with my pair getting a "divorce" and the male bullied his mate to the point of almost killing her - but I rescued her into a breeding tank for a few days to allow her to recuperate. I had to do that several times before they "made it up" and they are back to spawning again.

I think it's just as well that not all batches of fry survive otherwise what would we do with them all?

I will soon need to find willing homes for some of the current fry, which I know won't be easy.

So don't be over eager to rescue fry unless you know what you will do with them when they are grown. I actually only rescued 5 fry into a trap - thinking the rest would get eaten as per usual - but some were left and now I have more fry than I wanted to raise!

Athena

 

[dcarmor927]

Thanks for the replies! i've been talking to somone here on the forum about shipping them some, the rest i can donate to a LFS, which i've sorted things out with, they sell alot of them actually so if they dont have to pay for em they'd rather not, and i dont really care about selling them right now...Ill keep an eye out for the females safety...The main reason i ask is i read that fry could be moved by the parents somewhere else, but i didnt get why some got left behind...well the number keeps dwindling, this morning it seems there are less lol...oh well...Thanks again guys!!

 

[toddnbecka]

Basically, they'll spawn at least several times before taking a break, quite often eating the fry before the next batch of eggs hatches. If it's their first round as new parents, expect them to go through the trial-and-error process repeatedly as their parenting instincts slowly overcome their inexperience. I recently went through the same process with a spawning pair of chanchito's, sharing their tank with another non-spawning pair. The first 4 broods disappeared completely, though each one lasted longer than the previous ones. After the 5th had been reduced to a couple dozen the parents seemed to have lost interest, but weren't eating them either. The non-spawning pair was removed, the parents are no longer showing breeding colors, and the remaining fry seem to be doing fine on their own among the plants.

 

[dcarmor927]

Thanks for the reply, i want them to do it lol, they still seem interested, but the female seems like she doesnt pay attention all the time, right now she is off swimmin at the surface hoping im going to feed her lol

 

[Athena]

I always feed my female a bit extra food during the whole spawning process and especially once the fry are hatched. I noticed previously that she expends so much energy in fanning the eggs hour after hour for those couple of days that her health can quickly deteriorate. Sometimes she is so worried about leaving her eggs that she won't move to swim up for food so I mix the food with a little tank water, sloosh it into the tank above her so that it sinks to where she is, then she hurriedly eats it all.

Yes, the parents do move the fry around the tank on little day trips LOL - but they always move the whole batch together as far as I've seen. Even if one little fry goes a few inches too far from the rest, it will be sucked up by either mum or dad and spat back out amongst its siblings.

I have a feeling that it's during this process of collecting stray fry that the male gets confused and sometimes forgets to spit them back out! I've seen him do it quite a few times...so every day there are less and less fry.

Well, I hope some of yours survive - if you have a breeding trap you could always remove a few of the fry into that after they've been with the parents for a few days. It's the only sure-fire way of protecting them, if you really do want to rear some. Don't use the net type of trap though as I tried that and the fry were killed by the parents desperately trying to suck them through the mesh to rescue them! The plastic ones that have their own little airstone/spray bar gently bubbling away are best.

Regards - Athena

 

[dcarmor927]

I always feed my female a bit extra food during the whole spawning process and especially once the fry are hatched. I noticed previously that she expends so much energy in fanning the eggs hour after hour for those couple of days that her health can quickly deteriorate. Sometimes she is so worried about leaving her eggs that she won't move to swim up for food so I mix the food with a little tank water, sloosh it into the tank above her so that it sinks to where she is, then she hurriedly eats it all.

Yes, the parents do move the fry around the tank on little day trips LOL - but they always move the whole batch together as far as I've seen. Even if one little fry goes a few inches too far from the rest, it will be sucked up by either mum or dad and spat back out amongst its siblings.

I have a feeling that it's during this process of collecting stray fry that the male gets confused and sometimes forgets to spit them back out! I've seen him do it quite a few times...so every day there are less and less fry.

Well, I hope some of yours survive - if you have a breeding trap you could always remove a few of the fry into that after they've been with the parents for a few days. It's the only sure-fire way of protecting them, if you really do want to rear some. Don't use the net type of trap though as I tried that and the fry were killed by the parents desperately trying to suck them through the mesh to rescue them! The plastic ones that have their own little airstone/spray bar gently bubbling away are best.

Regards - Athena

Thanks! i had a couple in a breeding net but they just sat around and didnt move or anything, so i felt bad and let em out I bet that the male has accidentally been eating the little ones, ive seen him suck up multiple fry and only drop 1 or 2 out...i've been feeding sinking pellets to the fish while the fry are around, it keeps the salvini on his side and the cons dont have to leave their kids too long...if they dont make it theres always another time, so far the parents have been very good to each other, maybe they realize that they are the only convicts in my tank so they have to work it out lol
Thanks again!!

 

[dcarmor927]

well all the little guys are now gone i think, they have been "missing" for almost half the day, no sign of them and the parents arent really guarding anything, the male is chasing the females everywhere, and she has started to move around gravel again so they are gonna go for a round two i think..

 

[shroob]

well all the little guys are now gone i think, they have been "missing" for almost half the day, no sign of them and the parents arent really guarding anything, the male is chasing the females everywhere, and she has started to move around gravel again so they are gonna go for a round two i think..

Sounds like typical cons to me Won't be long until you see a cloud of babies again.

 

[dcarmor927]

well all the little guys are now gone i think, they have been "missing" for almost half the day, no sign of them and the parents arent really guarding anything, the male is chasing the females everywhere, and she has started to move around gravel again so they are gonna go for a round two i think..

Sounds like typical cons to me Won't be long until you see a cloud of babies again.

Lol hopefully they have more this time, i dont want 300 but 50 wasn't very effective, just looking in my tank and my male convict is over where the salvini always hides and the salvini took the convicts place...maybe the female banished him lol

 

[Athena]

Oh yes, that can happen LOL - my female goes into a sulky mood when she loses a batch of fry. I feel quite sorry for her because after all that effort of fanning and protecting, it comes to nothing and she looks so lost!

I've actually seen her giving the male a good telling off and refusing to have anything to do with him for a few days! He then goes and hides somewhere till his missus has cooled off.

Convicts are definitely not boring fish!

Athena

ps - little tip - if you want to encourage a larger batch of healthy fry... when you see the female starting to get her orange tummy start feeding her on live foods (brine shrimp/bloodworm esp.). Whenever I do that she always produces more eggs. And from the largest batch (must have been 100+) they allowed some of the fry to survive.

 

[dcarmor927]

Oh yes, that can happen LOL - my female goes into a sulky mood when she loses a batch of fry. I feel quite sorry for her because after all that effort of fanning and protecting, it comes to nothing and she looks so lost!

I've actually seen her giving the male a good telling off and refusing to have anything to do with him for a few days! He then goes and hides somewhere till his missus has cooled off.

Convicts are definitely not boring fish!

Athena

ps - little tip - if you want to encourage a larger batch of healthy fry... when you see the female starting to get her orange tummy start feeding her on live foods (brine shrimp/bloodworm esp.). Whenever I do that she always produces more eggs. And from the largest batch (must have been 100+) they allowed some of the fry to survive.

I had only had em for about a week when they started breeding, and her sides were glowing orange, i was feeding them both frozen blood worms in that time, (i have bred tiger barbs, so i know a bit lol) But im down to my last cube lol need more...

I think the female really did that, my tank lights arent on yet but i know the female and male are off on opposite sides of the tank lol, i hope they make up soon...Thanks for the reply and the tip!

 

[dcarmor927]

well since all the fry were lost, my salvini has taken over the tank, i re arranged everything to try and give them two different sides, but the salvini still chases the cons out...i dont want to have to buy a divider for the tank as there is a pleco in the tank too and i dont want to constrict him...will the cons get tough again when they set up a breeding spot? or will the salvini keep chasing em out?

Btw the cons are back together lol

Thanks for any help!