I have Clown Loaches & Convicts!

[Eelzor]

yes!, its official!, I have 2 clown loaches and 2 convicts. I am looking forward to breeding the convicts and thriving the loaches. i was wondering, how can you tell when the female is pregnant? is she fat? etc. tnx.

Oh yeah by the way, what do any of you think is better to raise the fry? Letting the parent do it or put the fry in a breeder net? thanx! so excited!!!

 

[Eelzor]

oh yes, one more question, whats a good Top Dwelling fish to go with the clown loaches and convicts?

 

[FloridaFishGuy]

What is a convict?

 

[Eelzor]

its a type of fish that breeds easily and is one of the best parents for the fry. mine has black and grey stripes.

 

[Pufferpack]

What is a convict?

Convicts - Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum are a type of South American Cichlid that are known to be prolific breeders, and if I'm not mistaken excellent parents (I believe the juvenile convicts will help raise the next generation of fry, but I could be wrong)

Eelzor, you'll probably get a better response if you post this in the Cichlid section, or PM one of the Mods and ask them to move it for you. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful

 

[Eelzor]

ok, well if a moderator sees this move this post then. tnx anyways

 

[njparton]

oh yes, one more question, whats a good Top Dwelling fish to go with the clown loaches and convicts?

I like my silver hatchets, very easy to keep.

Marbled hatchets look nice too.

 

[gadazobe]

Do you want to keep the tank as a S/A cichlid tank?

 

[Eelzor]

not in this case, no.

 

[AquaNut]

How big is your tank, Eelzor? I've never kept convict cichlids, but I was under the impression that they're pretty nasty. I could be wrong, but I'd definitely try to get some advice from some of the cichlid folks on this forum before adding anything else to them. Smb? Cichlidmaster?

 

[Eelzor]

the convicts i have are very small, and the tank i have is quite small too - 18x8x8.

But ill get a bigger tank quite soon.

 

[AquaNut]

Ack. I hate to be a downer, but you definitely don't have any room to be thinking about fish as top dwellers in your tank. Your clown loaches are going to out-grow that tank in a matter of a month or two, and if you don't move them, they will likely be stunted. Like I said, I don't know much of anything about convict cichlids, but I'm pretty sure a pair of convicts needs something closer to 25 gallons.

 

[Eelzor]

dam it, that put me down. actually i was prapared for a reply like that, but like i said aquanut, ill be getting a larger tank quite soon. I really don't know how big it is, but i estimate it was about 40 gallons. the fish i own are about 1 inche long now.

 

[smb]

Sorry, I haven't seen this thread til now. Like Pufferpack said you should have posted this in the New World cichlids forum.

The convicts will kill anything else in that tank if you have a breeding pair. You'll be able to tell that they are protecting the eggs if you happen to notice the female missing and the male becomes a LOT more aggressive.

The problem I foresee with putting cichlids in with non-cichlids is that other cichlids know about territory and boundaries and learn very fast where they are and to stay outside of the territory. Community fish don't understand that concept and even tho they will be chased out they will keep going back because they don't understand WHY they are being chased. Eventually they will be killed by the convicts protecting their fry because of this.

Convicts are excellent parents and if they do have eggs, it's best to keep the fry in with the parents as nothing will be able to get to them and they will be protected. Once they are free-swimming (within a week) then you can take them out but make sure you have dither fish in there! Otherwise the male might kill the female, especially if she isn't ready to breed right away and chances are she won't be for another week or so.

Infact, chances are you won't even be able to get close to the fry yourself w/o them attacking your hand and putting up a great fight.

 

[Eelzor]

so in my case, 2 clown loaches + 2 convicts, the convicts will try to badly hurt the loaches? should i put an acrylic divider?