Too many convicts

[dualexcess]

It's a ridiculous tale, starting with my husband needing to move a couple of the convicts out of his tank in his office. My daughter had expressed an interest in fishkeeping and before she knew it, boom, there were his leftovers in the old 29 gallon tank on a nice wrought-iron stand in her bedroom.

And they mated, of course. Currently, thereare17ofthem. I know.

She's distraught at euthanizing them, but even though they've all grown--2 to 3.5 inches--and are healthy-looking, it's obviously a bad situation. I don't know much about cichlids except how to pronounce them, and all she really wanted were some cute little schoolers. He's busy at the office, and I've forgiven him but I need help.

The fish store man treated me like an idiot when I asked if they wanted a free gift; it's not like he could know how diligent she is and how great they look! But yes...I need to kill them? And...how?

edit note--i originally said 18, but it's 17. no one died.

 

[AllusiveLife]

Throw them in the toilet and flush...

 

[Synirr]

Thanks for the bad advice AllusiveLife, I'm sure everyone appreciates that. Flushing a live fish is just about the cruelest possible way to kill them. I'd equate it to drowning kittens. It's slow and unpleasant. Maybe you don't believe fish are capable of experiencing pain or distress, but for the simple fact that we can't be 100% sure whether or not they do at this point, I wouldn't risk it.

If I were you, I'd first check the local phonebook for more pet shops in the area to see if anyone will take them off your hands. If you're willing to put a little effort into finding them homes, you could also list them in the local newspaper for a small fee. You could ask the LFS if they would take them as feeders for a larger fish... at least then they'd be used for something.

If you end up having the euthanize them, there are three relatively humane ways to go about it. The quickest way for the fish, but the most unpleasant for you, would be to simply cut their heads off and pierce their brains. Fast and efficient. The second best way, in my opinion, is to use clove oil which you can find in most healthfood stores. You put it in a cup of water, shake it up real good, then pour it in with the fish. I'm not sure how much to use exactly, but I've used it in the past and just estimated the amount... someone else might be able to tell you. It doesn't take much to knock them out, and once they've been unconscious for an hour or so, I put them in the freezer just to make sure. The third way to kill them is by freezing, but there are a lot of arguments as to how humane it actually is. The idea is to put a bowl of water in the freezer until it develops a thin layer of ice on the top, then take the fish out of its tank and immediate immerse it in the freezer water. The shock of such a sudden temperature change supposedly knocks them out, then you leave them in the freezer for a while to make sure they've died.

Good luck to you, and I hope you find a solution.

 

[dualexcess]

Thank you for the suggestions, Synirr. I could not imagine just--flushing live creatures down a toilet. I hadn't heard about using the clove oil; might be the way to go.

There aren't any other dedicated fish stores in the immediate area, but I can expand my horizons a bit and see what else is out there before I administer what would hopefully be "humane euthanization." sigh.

 

[trisha1972]

What about giving them away? I've seen many on here give fish away before. Apparently you can ship them pretty easily?

 

[dualexcess]

I would love to give them away. I only wanted to do that in the first place. I don't know about giving away only one or two at a time, though; that might be beyond my means, shipping-wise.

People apparently regard them as the guppies of the cichlid world in terms of proliferation, and of course, they require so much space. The fish store man said they'd just be fighting and hurting each other, too, but actually they're not doing that, just milling around in their little home together.

 

[irma]

my convicts have hatched frys. They are a month now. The male has suddentlystarted abusing the female. I separated them for a while and, now put her back but, he is still doing this.

Is he protecting the frys? Will it stop once they get bigger?

 

[freddyk]

Wish you lived near me, I could use them as feeders. Try giving them away in that section of this website, and perhaps other websites - I can't imagine I'm the only one who would take them.

 

[dualexcess]

Hey, okay, thanks for the tip--I guess that's better than just ending their lives for nothing. I do have to wonder what sort of fish eat feeders this large, or, ew, do you parcel them out...?

My daughter says that both parents chased the others away from their fry, so I don't know about whether that's normally an issue between mates.

 

[freddyk]

I would store them in a handy 25 gallon tank where they'd live a pretty happy life until they became gobbled up whole by my Oscar.

 

[AllusiveLife]

Were discussing on how to kill them, and I suggested to flush them down the toilet... The same person who disagreed, suggested to freeze them, or stab their brains... I gave bad advice? Two things could happen, they could survive, or they could die? You would never know... If you threw them in the canal, that's pretty much the same thing as flushing them... Ever wondered what that brown plumpy stuff was, hanging on the top of the water in a Canal?

People these days

 

[dualexcess]

Yeah, it's all philosophy and it's subjective, and then it's recycling and so forth, but honestly, I do hope someone can get some sort of use out of them, even if it's just to make my daughter feel better about the whole deal.

 

[Unseen]

eat them

 

[swampcat]

NO ONE wants them! Use for feeders if possible? If you keep they will keep mating for ever, thier children will mate, and their childrens, childrens ,children will mate! I've been there.,

 

[digital_run]

eat them

Yea your a genius....

Synirr's methods were/are considered humane ways of dealing with them....flushing them is not one of those methods and really if flushing them is your best solution then i really feel bad for any future fry you may encounter.

Irma...While the bonds between breeding convicts can be quite strong....they can also turn out to be very weak and a Male con attacking the female is actually not an uncommon thing. I would let the male raise them and buy a divider for the tank...once you have dealt with the young-ins you can re-arrange the tank and reintroduce both of them back into it.

Ðigital