What have i done!!!

[Ziggy25]

Three weeks ago i went i decided to keep cichlids, so i went to my LFS and bought 4 convicts.

Came back home.. put them in a 20 gallon tank and all is good.

Four days later i found that the four convicts have grouped themselves in to two pairs and one male from one of the pairs was getting very violent. By violent i mean real war!! In some cases the female would also join with the male to attack anything that comes close to their territory.

Anyway after some time i got worried so i started reading to find out what could cause this. Eventually i realised that they get so violent if they have laid eggs.

So i looked around the tank and find that the violent pair had actually laid quite a few eggs and were protecting them from intruders. So i decided OK we'll monitor them to see what happens.

After two or three days, the war got so violent that one of the convicts from the other pair was getting ill, always hiding behind the filter.. had lots of marks.. i could see that a chunk of its lips was bitten off... I decided its time to do something about it so i headed off to Ebay.

I bought a small 30cm tank which i decided i'll use as temporary storage for the none-breeding pair, and once the fry are ready to be moved ill move the fry into 30cm tank and put the other pair back together with the breeding pair.

So i did just that..

After about four days, the fry hatched and everything is going as planned. I waited a couple more days for the fry to start swimming. I decided leave them there for another 2 days then ill do the swap.

The next day, once again i noticed that the female is being aggressive to the fry!!! I thought come on this is not possible... i had a look at the tank and just as i thought the breeding pair have laid more eggs!!! I thought.. oh my god!!

So now i had another problem.

-I cannot mix the fry with the second pair as they will be eaten.
-I cannot leave the fry on that tank as the mother is killing them one by one.. (I think the need the space for the new ones.. )
-And im not going to ebay again to get another tank coz i cant afford it! and i neeeded another solution coz i cant keep going to ebay everytime.

So eventually i went to my LFS and bought one of those floating breeding traps. I thought i can get one of those for the fry as they are small and can survive there for a couple of days.

Actually the idea was to separate the old fry in to the breeding trap, then release them when the others start to swim around.

So anyway i picked up all the fry one by one and put them on to the breeding trap.

Now a few days later the new fry have hatched and i was ready to release the old fry so that they can mix with the new ones. That was a big mistake coz what really happened was that as soon as i released them, the male fish started to be aggressive to the female fish.

For some reason it has completely gone off the female.. it is protecting all the fry by itself (Including teh ones i just released). Anything that comes close to them is attacked.

In a way i thought... Thank god!!! coz that would mean no more fry as the couple have separated.

Now that i have all the fry together.. the breeding couple are not shagging anymore as they broke up.. i thought its time to put the fry in to the small 30cm tank and bring back the other pair on to the same tank.

To my suprise, i found that the other pair have also laid eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i swear i sat on my bed thinking how i can deal with this situation!!

now..

- The original breeding pair have divorced. and they are fighting like mad..
- The male is the only parent for the 1st and 2nd batch of fry..
- The second pair are about to introduce new fry!!

I thought i could wait for the second pair to hatch the eggs.. leave them there for a while for the fry to be strong enough to swim.. then separate them and put all the fry on one tank..

If i put all the adults together again.. someone is going to get laid and its costing me a lot of money i cant afford new tanks!!

i havent even started to think about what to do when the fry grow big enough to know how to do it...

Now.. i've run out of ideas and solutions.. it seems that this cycle will never end.. the best idea so far that i have come up with is to take all the convicts to the LFS and just buy gouramis!!!

 

[freddyk]

the best idea so far that i have come up with is to take all the convicts to the LFS and just buy gouramis!!!

Might be the best solution.

First off, you can't put more then one pair of convicts in a 20 gallon tank, you'd need a 55 gallon minimum to accomplish this. They are much too aggressive and much too territorial. Very few, if any, cichlids are match for convict breeding aggression.

Second, convicts are just about the most fertile fish there is. They don't stop, and will breed in a toilet. Breeding these guys is, I'm afraid, no great feat. If you are unwilling to cull the fry (kill those you don't have room to raise) then they're probably not the right fish for you.

Breeding is the only real reason to keep convicts, otherwise there are better fish out there to suit most aquarists. You can still go with cichlids if you enjoy their behavior - a number of small cichlids would make a more ideal aquarium - ones with which you can keep non-cichlids to spice up the tank, and ones that don't breed as easily or as often. Kribs, Rams, and Apistogramma come to mind. Whatever you do, do research first! That way you know two pairs can't be kept together in a 20 gallon tank!

 

[BettaMomma]

I don't mean to laugh, but what a hilarious story. It sounds just like something that would happen to me. I feel like I just read the most entertaining romance novel on the planet.

I know nothing about these kind of fish but it sounds like you could have a bazillion of them before it's all said and done.

This might be a really dumb question (just cuz I know ZERO about them), but can you still keep a couple of them but keep 2 females, say?

 

[black angel]

i was going to say the same as bettamomma, take the males back and just have the two females if you like them so much.

 

[juanveldez]

I have to agree with freddy, cons aren't exactly the best starter cichlid out there. they are readily avalible due to the crazy amount of breeding that goes on with them, and the culling that is involved after that ie. feeding them to other fish or outright killing them. I know it sounds cruel but you know what, it has to happen. just a sad part of life. if ya really want cons I suggest you keep your breeding female and trade the rest in. this is mostly becuase females are more colorful than males, though I have an outstanding pink con male with trailers like no other the only rival to his are the ones on my 8 inch midas!!!

for your efforts in research though here is a link to an article written by one of our own members here.

Rams, Apistos, and Keyholes what you need to know.