My Male Convict's Found His Lady-friend

[idlefingers]

I introduced 3 female albino convicts to my 200ltr tank housing 1 black male convict on the 9th and it seems he's already paired up with one! I wanted to get 5-6 females of a similar size to him for him to pick from, but the lfs only had 3 albino females and they were a bit smaller than my male. I decided to take the risk and just cross my fingers.

He has been chasing them around for the past few days but not really being as bad as I expected him to be. Then today one of the females has been spending all her time by his side. He isn't chasing her off but between them, they're making sure the other females stay on the other side of the tank and they've started cleaning out the bogwood.

Considering the difference in size and the fact my male con seems to be an especially aggressive little bugger (I had to remove him from my oscar tank), I think it's gone pretty smoothly (so far) and quickly - just 4 days since introducing them! I just hope they don't be too bad to the other females until I can take them back to the lfs at the weekend!

Here they are, by their beloved bogwood:

 

[ox5477]

Big word of advice.... take the other females back ASAP. If the paired female lays eggs, then they will be bullied even more than they are now, so don't risk it and take them back to the lfs.

This isnt suprising, ie the quick pairing of your cons. Cons are prob one of the easier breeds of fish to pair and breed besides maybe guppys and the like.

And if they do indeed spawn then they will spawn quite often so have plans for all the fry as they grow as before you know it, you can be inundated with baby cons. Good Luck with the happy family

 

[idlefingers]

I can't get to the lfs until Saturday at the soonest, so I can only cross my fingers and hope they wait a few days to start!

I knew they were easy to pair off and breed (that's why I decided to do it) but I didn't think it would be in 4 days! I was expecting a week or two. I guess I should've taken the "add cons and water and you have babies" saying more literally!

No worries about the hordes of babies. I have that covered.

 

[randallhart]

I'm happy for you and I hope everything goes well until saturday, but I was wondering would you happen to have any pictures or idea of color the fry would be?

 

[kribensis12]

Any albino and regular crossing of any fish can result of fish of both colors and maybe even a calico.

 

[randallhart]

I bet the calico would look nice. Just like your kribensisi did Kribensis12.

 

[kribensis12]

In my op, any cailco is beautiful, cause it is a type of orange. My lfs had some calico convicts and they were stellar( and 8 dollars). You could make some money off of selleing calico's.

 

[ox5477]

In my op, any cailco is beautiful, cause it is a type of orange. My lfs had some calico convicts and they were stellar( and 8 dollars). You could make some money off of selleing calico's.

Thats the part of modern commercialism that you gotta love. Any natural anomaly that man finds, he trys to sell it at quadruple the price... haha

 

[idlefingers]

Well, it's gotten confusing now.. I don't know which ones to take back tomorrow or whether to take any at all!...

The pair which originally formed still seems to be there, but I'm not sure if it's solid.. She seems more paired off with him than he is with her, if that makes sense? They're digging in the same spot and still seem like a pair but one of the other females seems to be trying to get a foot-in.

The new female has started digging right next to where the pair are and is having a lot of disputes with the paired female. The male is not chasing the female which I thought he originally paired with or the new one but is attacking the third female who doesnt seem to be in the game.

So, the male seems slightly closer to one, eying up the other and chasing the third. What should I do? Should I just keep what I thought was the original pair and hope that without competition, they'll get closer? Or should I just return the weaker one who doesn't seem to be in the running and wait to see which female he chooses?

Not sure if I explained that very well...

 

[randallhart]

It seems your in a bit of a bind. You could wait until they have spawned but you'll lose the other two females. You could take back the one who you feel he's not interested in, but what if you take back the wrong one?
wow, you've got me there.?

 

[kribensis12]

I would keep the ones that paired off first and get rid of the rest. That male cant have it all.

 

[randallhart]

I agree.

 

[idlefingers]

But I'm not entirely sure they have paired off.. the male doesn't seem sure.. (am I just reading too much into this?)

Do you think if I got rid of the others, they would get closer?

 

[randallhart]

I would think so. There would be no distrations.

 

[idlefingers]

Well, I've woken up to find eggs!!

Its the female I thought originally paired with the male who's done it, so I'm definitely keeping her and taking the other back in a min!