Better color in a Convict - Male or Female

[DarthV]

I'm thinking about picking up a single con after work today and I'm wondering which of the sexes will have the better colors ?

[optix]

Female has the better colors but please do yourself a favor and take your time and get a male :D you wont be disappointed. I am absolutly totally pleased with my little guy which is obvious if you've seen past posts :) I have a few pics on childawgs page I'll go fetch. They are by far not the greatest, but gives you an idea of the male appearance once mature


EDIT: here's the thread if you want to see a lil feedback as well :)http://aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11284

[Jayhawk]

I think they're both equally attractive. My male has long flowing fins that are bluish. He's quite elegant. The female has shorter fins, but she does have that orange belly, her head is often jet black, and she has bright yellow and blue on her fins. I'm amazed how pretty she is. I love having a pair though. They're like a comic pair of bickering spouses.

[Tightdog1]

a single female wont have the good colors you guys are all talking about, but she will have some, if they are breeding pairs then they both have much better coloration. but i would go with a male, if i was to recommend just 1 con.

[DarthV]

Just got home with a male con. It has the longer fins and no orange coloring on the belly. Pretty active fish from someone that is still in the bag! He's trying to get out :) I'll post some pics after I have some food and the fish settles in.

[Tightdog1]

just curoius what size tank are you putting him into?

[DarthV]

I have a 20gal right now with a zebra danio, 2" green terror and a common pleco to go along with the con. I'm moving at the end of June and I will be selling my 20gal and upgrading to a 55...hopefull in the 1rst week at my new place.

The 20 should last until then. I figure the GT isn't too much larger than the con, and at most each fish will gain only an inch and I'm anticipating the loss of the danio ;) I am overfiltering the hell out of the 20 as well... 1 aquatech 30-60 (lowest setting) and a fluval 304, so ammonia/nitrite levels should never get out of hand because of the enormous amount of filtration going on. I also do 25-30% weekly water changes like clockwork.

If needed, I can borrow a 10gal or a 40 from friends to house one of the fish if problems occur.


(I'm definitely not advocating adding a med-large cichlid into a 20gal, but I have a solid plan that should make my fish happy campers)

[optix]

yeah once you get that 55 gallon I'd have to say the 20 should be left to the con alone and the GT should get the 55 gallon because that GT in about a year will probably be a good 7-8 inchs.

[Tightdog1]

yes you do have a solid plan and you are over filtering but once you get the55g, i wold probably just put the GT in the 55g by himself maybe with the pleco bkuz he will get to approx 12" and is very aggressive, but keep the con in the 20g. yea that zebra will prob die, even tho the fish shouldnt be that aggressive now. but they will b.

the fluval are you gonna put that on the 55g when you get it? cause that would be perfect. i have a 304 on both of my 55gs but i also have biowhel pro 60s inline but i have more fish in them than you will.

you should be fine if you stick to that plan tho.

[DarthV]

Actually the 55 will be end-targetted for keeping some african cichlids :) Here's my plan:

Move and sell my 20gal + buy the 55g. The GT's growth will slow down once it hits about 6" or so, which will buy me some time before going out and buying a 72/75/90 (48x18" footprint) once I get settled. I can go out and buy the 55 today if I wanted to, but I figured it would be a lot easier to move the 20g instead of a 44 or if all goes well, have the 55 filled and ready to go at the new place before tearing down the 20 where I am now.

I'm going to be ordering some filters, heaters and other supplies in a week or so in anticipation of getting the 55 (and larger down the road). I think I'll be ordering 2 ac300's and a few titanium heaters + some good quality food (Hikari gold) and a python for water changes.

Once I get settled and my girlfriend pays back some money she owes me + sell off an older guitar amp, I'll get working on getting a 90gal up and running. The largest hurdle with that will be getting a stand made.

Which will leave me with a 55gal open for some mbuna :) I figure 4 each of labidochromis caeruleus + iodotropheus sprengerae + hongi red tops (another labidochromis species) should go well in the 55g. :D


At least with the slow growth rate of GTs once they hit 6" or so should give me time. The fun part will be to figure out what to put in with it for the larger tank. If I go with the 90, I should be able to put in an Oscar, Texas, Severum or Jack Dempsey...depending on the GT's temperament.


How's that sound for a plan ?

[optix]

Sounds like a plan to me but one thing....come on man :p don't make the female pay back money, thats what we're here for. We gotta spoil em ;)

[DarthV]

And forgot to mention, the danio will not last long...the other 2 that were bought at the same time have been executed with severe prejudice...1 had the gut ripped out of it (almost ripped in 1/2), the other vanished (gee I wonder where it went? :) ) Seems that thet GT likes to party hard on Saturday nights...both incidents happened then. Guess I should cut back on its tequila supply ! :cool:

And as for the mature size of the GT, I'm still unsure of the sex (if you read the sex a GT thread, you'll see). I had thought it was female, which only will reach 8-10" long, but now I'm noticing a little bit of a hump and the fins seem longer.

But I agree that more space = happier fish, so I'll be doing my best to accomodate :)

[DarthV]

I agree on the money thing to a point. She just moved to another province for a job that pays less than she made here. And she borrowed the money to help her move... so I'll be definitely asking for that back...specially since now that I have to move out of our current place!

[optix]

ahhhh I see. Didn't know the situation.

[DarthV]

Funny thing is that pretty much every night since she's moved away, she's called and said she wants to move back. I guess life in the larger city isn't for her. Hopefully she decides to move back. Then again there might not be any room for her stuff when I get the larger tanks :D

:)

[optix]

lol **** man that'd be rough. I can't imagine life without my baby girl by my side.

[DarthV]

Life can be a real female dog in heat, eh? *shrug* What can you do? I'm pretty independent, so I'll live...

Well I just took some pics of the new fish, unfortunately the convict doesn't like to pose as well as the GT does. I ended up taking about 30 pics and only 1 of the con came out decent... the GT seemed to be posing...staying in 1 spot long enough for me to snap multiple pictures of the same pose!

http://executor.hil.unb.ca/craig/images/fish/convict/convict001.jpg

I'm not sure where the pink color on the belly came from, but I think it is reflected light from the substrate.

I'll take some more later on...and probably update the pics of the GT because I got some awesome ones tonight already.

Check this out:

http://executor.hil.unb.ca/craig/images/fish/GT/GT023.jpg

[Tightdog1]

1 pic didnt work. but the other one looks real good, should grow up to a nice GT.

[optix]

ahhh nice con man. I really need to get a digi and get better shots of mine. Nice GT as well :)

[Tightdog1]

ok nevermind the pic works now, nice con!

[ROLLIN]

Where did you get the convict? Nice fish. :)

[DarthV]

Up at Pets Unlimited. They have cons on sale 2 for $8.

[ROLLIN]

I cant go there, I broke a heater in there in december 2001 and the bald guy banned me. Next time youre in there, will you check if they have any good sized giants danios (at least 4 inches)?

[DarthV]

Uhhh I don't think they can legally ban a person for accidentally breaking something...that's what their insurance is for! They would have to actually get a restraining order if they wanted to something like that... a public business can't pick and choose at random who they will let in.

Anyways... they do have a lot of giant danios...but I don't think they are quite 4" long.

Wish they would get rid of their hybrid cichlids...they have a tank full of flowerhorns...and I don't think they've sold a single on in months. And they have blood parrots as well...ugly ugly fish. The could use those 2 tanks for something more interesting, like some blue acaras or jack dempseys. I had to stop myself from buying one of the 2 juvi tiger oscars they had left... **** puppy dog eyes almost had me!

[ROLLIN]

I should go in there sometime, theyd probably never remember me. Where did you get that pot thats in your tank? Was it labeled as a terra cotta pot? Ive been looking for some terra cotta pots, but can only find just plain clay pots. I dont know if theyre the same or not. How much are the parrots there? At pet kingdom theyre something like $59.99.

[dave76]

Have to agree that parrots are the ugliest of the cichlids, there is just something wrong with a fish that cannot close its mouth. There is this chinese food resturant where I work, they have a like a 100 gallon tall tank with a silver arrowana, and about 6 parrots and a gold severum and a pleco. One of the parrots has got to be sick or something, it has couldy eyes and discolored patches on its skin, but it has been in this tank in this condition for a year or better that I can recall. Others of the parrots dont have caudal fins, they just have what appears to be extemely oversized dorsal and anal fins that they use in this capacity. strange fish, a genetic anomaly of sorts imho.

[DarthV]

Originally posted by ROLLIN
I should go in there sometime, theyd probably never remember me. Where did you get that pot thats in your tank? Was it labeled as a terra cotta pot? Ive been looking for some terra cotta pots, but can only find just plain clay pots. I dont know if theyre the same or not. How much are the parrots there? At pet kingdom theyre something like $59.99.


Don't bother with parrots...ugly fish...and way way overpriced. I'm hoping they get rid of the flowerhorns and parrots someday at Pet Unlimited. Then again the flowerhorns don't look too much different from a regular Trimac.

As for the pot, they were 97cents at walmart. I believe terra cotta pots are just plain clay.

[ROLLIN]

I thought the pots would be alot more than that. They look pretty big for only 97 cents.

[DarthV]

I think the pots are 5-6" in diameter. And remember, things are cheap at wallymart! The do have more that have fancier looks and glazes, but the regular pots are cheap. Once I get a 55gal, I'll probably get a couple more larger ones and maybe glue them to some eggcrate so the GT doesn't bash them against the glass once it matures.

And ROLLIN, I do think the blood parrots are the same price at Pets Unlimited and I think they are about 4-5" long or so.

[ROLLIN]

Originally posted by DarthV
Up at Pets Unlimited. They have cons on sale 2 for $8.

Do they have any other cichlids on sale?

[DarthV]

Hrmmm I think the only ones they had listed for a special price was the cons. I think all of their SA/CA cichlids for less than $10. Off the top of my head they had : Green Terrors ($9) marked as gold saums, Severums, Jewels, rams, couple oscars and flowerhorns ($14 I think). They have a large oscar in a holding tank, but no price. They also have a decent selection of africans... kribs, mixed africans, labidochromis caeruleus, johani.

Pretty much all the cichlids are juvi fish...the CA/SA ones are 2" or less for the most part.

I'm going to bring in a species list to get some prices this weekend... hoping they can get some of them at the size and price I want.