My Convict Pair Hatched Fry. What Do I Do?

[Jackiee]

I have a pair of convicts that had been hiding out, acting strange, and daddy convict was becoming much more aggressive. I didn't see the female hardly for a week.

Today, I just came home to find 50+ fry in a swarm in the middle of the backside of the tank,
with mom and dad convicts keeping them in a group and running off any of my other fish that get too close.

The bully male convict is about 3 and 1/2 inches long, while my female is only about 2 and 1/2 inches long.

They are in a 90 gallon aquarium along with a 5" blood parrot, a 7" severum, a small 4" jack dempsey and a small 4" oscar (yes, they all get along great).
I have a spare 10 gallon tank that I have just in case I need a hospital tank if a fish gets beaten up or sick.

So, my question is.. Should I move the fry out of my 90 gallon community tank, into the 10 gallon tank?
If so, should I move them by themselves, both the parents along with them, or just the mother?

And should the tank be bare bottom or have some fine substrate that the babies can't try to swim through/get stuck in?
and should there be a few plants for the babies to hide in to feel at home, or is this not necessary?

The male convict is harrassing my other larger fish trying to protect the fry and being territorial, and some fins are getting slightly nipped, and I don't know if their aggression will increase towards the other fish even more, the longer the fry are in there..

Advice?

 

[Jackiee]

Anyone.... ?

 

[minnnt]

Your male will take it upon himself to defend his young like never before. He will terrorise ALL of your other fish no matter what it is! I would move them personally, but then there is the risk of stressing them and the possibility of them eating the fry when you move them. If you feel confident in moving the fry then you could also consider this option. You could also consider moving the male but i guess it depends what the female would be left with in your main tank to try and defend her young against. any way you could place a divider in the tank? You could try and seperate the convicts from the rest of the tank that way?!

HTH, keep us posted!

 

[tenohfive]

Do you want the increased aggression in your tank that breeding convicts are famous for? If not I'd rehome one of the convicts, move the other to the 10g whilst the others get rid of the fry.

 

[marksayer10@tiscali.co.uk]

i have breeding convicts before and if you can move there nest to one side of your tank and move there cave or half coconut shell then they will generally stay in that area with the fry. they are fantastic parents i personally left them to it in my com tank

hope this helps

 

[Jackiee]

Before they actually had the free swimming fry, (or probably before they had even laid their eggs). they started becoming extremely aggressive to the other fish in my tank (a blood parrot, severum, juvenile oscar, juvenile jack dempsey) since the small cave they had claimed was right next to a large bell decoration on the left side of the tank that all of the larger fish hungout by and hid in.

So, I put my hand in the tank and moved their small cave across the tank (all the while being attacked on my hand by the male), hoping to keep them on that side and away from terrorizing everybody else.

Well, instead, they abandoned that small cave completely and the female moved into another small decoration that I had in the tank, hidden away in the back with plenty of plants and hiding places around it (away from the previous territory and the other fish) and here she remained for a week and a half until free swimming babies came about.

I decided to keep the fry and parents in the tank to see how they do. If it didn't work, I knew they would respawn and I would try differently the next time.

Now, they've been keeping the fry anywhere from the back/middle of the tank - to the right side. They move them around some, but stay in the area of the tank, away from my other fish. They occassionally chase after them if they get too close too their babies, but it's not anything extreme or damaging. It's been 2 days since the fry have been free swimming, so I'm assuming they're around 5-6 days old? I read somewhere that they become free swimming around day 3 of being alive?

I watched them move the group a little too close to one of my filter's the first night they were free swimming, and about 10 babies got sucked up
I moved the intake part of the filter as far over in the corner as i could, and no babies have been sucked up since. I'm still estimating about 30-40 fry.

My other larger fish are also showing no interest what so ever in the parents or the fry. Not once have I seen an attempt for fry to be eaten.