What Do You Guys Think?

[tanzen]

I have recently aquired seventeen convict cichlids as a rescue case.

The conditions they were being kept in were absolutely horrid! All seventeen (plus three more that have already found a loving home) were being kept in a twenty gallon tank filled with only a few inches of putrid water. It was as if the tank was being used as a garbage disposal! There were popsicle sticks, FIRECRACKERS, and god knows what else floating in the water. And it smelled like absolute sewage. They were offered to me for free so i just had to save them. However, i'm forced to give them to a very reputable local fish store due to my lack of having nowhere to house them all (currently have them in a thirty-five gallon bucket).

But the dilemma is, i think i may want to keep a couple of them . I have an unused twenty-five gallon that i'm thinking could house about two or three. I've never really wanted a cichlid tank, even if just a small one, but these guys are so much fun to watch. I'm aware of how aggressive they are, but would they pick too much on a small school of neons or would they be too much out of place?

Thanks all

++Oh, and i do plan on fishless cycling the new tank if i do decide to keep a couple

 

[Wills]

Hi there have to commend you for taking them in but if you can I would rehome them asap if they breed in your bucket which is possible you could end up with thousands. Some good news though if you wanted to keep some you could keep a pair or 3 females in your 25 gallon tank. In that size tank tank mates may struggle and neons are a definite no no convicts can take out other cichlids twice their size so neons would be munched down like crisps. I think if it was me I would want to have 2 females and maybe try some dithers with them. Try and pick out the most placid ones you have though, female cons usually have red on their bellies and also stay smaller with more rounded dorsal and anal fins, the reason I say keep just females is because when convicts breed they get 2-300 fry at a time and they are very good parents so often have good chances of high survival rates and this is why things like this case happen where there are tanks that are inundated by cons, also convict fry can be very hard to get rid of as they are a common fish that breed easily so shops are often well stocked with them as well so with 2 females you can enjoy the fish and not worry about the fry and the issues around them. As far as dithers go I would try some barbs or medium sized danio how long is the tank? Is it a 2ft or a 3ft tank? Good luck with them If you need help with sexing them post pics and we should be able to work it out for you

Wills

 

[tanzen]

Oh i hope they dont breed, i got them last night and i'm probably going to be taking them to the fish store tomorrow. So hopefully that's not enough time for them to make babies, hahaa.

Well with the sexing, that's the problem. Only two are full grown, and they're males. The three that are already gone were full grown females. All of the others are under two inches and most are under one inch. Are you able to sex them when they're that small?

It's a two foot tank, so would that be able to accomadate two females with a shoal of about six or seven zebra danios?

Thanks

 

[Wills]

Yeah you can usually sex them from quite small as long as they are out of the fry stage. Any chance of some pics of the ones you like? I think zebras are a little small for cons but might work with just females - I think you should look at barbs like oddesa, black ruby or tiger?

Wills

 

[tanzen]

Well i just tried really hard to pick out the ones that i like, but they all pretty much look the same though, so it's hard for me to keep track of who's who. So i just bagged up a really energetic one, but my camera couldnt take a good picture, even when the fish was still. Would it be considered poor fish keeping if i just took my chances with two without sexing first?

Well as far as dithers go, i think i'll go with three or four black ruby barbs. Sound good ?

 

[Wills]

Yeah 4 sounds good. Maybe try separating some of them but favoring the smaller ones - look for ones that have rounded fins and any signs of red on their bellies these are the most likley females, this will be confirmed if they you dont get fry in the tank later in the year (or more likley next few weeks)

Wills

 

[tanzen]

Alright cool, thanks for the advice