OMG convict bliss!!

[latazyo]

so, my suspiciously acting convicts now have about 65 babies

my question is this

please help ASAP

do I need to remove the male, will he eat them?

also

they hatched today

how long before they are big enough to recognize as actual fish

and when and what do I need to feed them

and how many do you think I"ll have at the end?

please help ASAP about removing the male

thanks again for everything

Leighton

this is a VERY happy day for me

[goldfries]

from what i know so far, the female will guard the kids while the male will guard the territory around it.

so i don't think you'll have to remove the male. they're good parents.

[latazyo]

thanks for replying, 23 views only one reply, THANKS

I'm pumped, my favorite fish bred

[Anton Wernher]

Congrats, observing the breeding and fry care of cichlids is really my favorite part of this hobby. You will really start enjoying your tank now:). The care of the eggs/fry is done by both parents. As said above father poses no more a threat then the mother. However being that this is their first spawn, one of the parents may decided the eggs are better off as lunch. It might take a couple of spawns for them to get it right( parents that are several times removed from the wild seem most prone to this ). The fry should become free-swimming about a week after hatching. The parents will probably continue to care for the fry for a month to so after. Once they spawn again the earlier clutch will then be considered a threat and delt with accordingly. You probably have a small number of eggs this time around, as they get a couple more attempts under their belt you will see larger numbers. Good luck and enjoy.

[latazyo]

but see, the eggs already hatched and they are wriggling around

lst night I could see like 65 of them, today I only see about 15 of them, perhaps the others are in the cave

last night the mother kept grabbing them and moving them on top of their cave

then she changed her mind and moved them inside

I hope that all of the wrigglers survive, this is outstanding


Anton- you said that they'd care for them for a month...

I just bought my 75g and I was planning on moving them into it, should I wait until their done caring for the young, or could I move them all over to the bigger tank or should I just hold off on that?

[Anton Wernher]

Care time varies from fish to fish but my experiance has been 2 weeks - 1 month - favoring the longer end of the scale. You can go ahead and move the parents (assuming it is cycled right:) ) to the new tank. I would leave the fry where they are(if there isn't any other fish in the tank).

[latazyo]

the only other fish in the tank is a 2" common pleco, but he can move to the 75g with the other fish

and I haven't really started teh cycle over there yet, all I have in there is a plate of gravel from an already established tank, but no fish yet, because I haven't had time to get down to the store this week

I would put the biowheel of my other tanks in there, but I had a bout with ich a few weeks ago and don't want to contaminate the new water, so I think I can just wait

they'll be very happy to be in their new home

[Molino]

As already mentionned it depends a lot on the fish. The first batch my convicts had has survived only because I moved the parents from the 10g to a 33g, seperating them from the fry. Since then they've had 2 other batches of fry, both of which have been eaten after hatching.

One thing I noticed with mine is that initially when the eggs hatched both parents cared for them, then the male turned on the female and took up the job of guarding the fry. I had to add more hiding spots for the female at this point as she was very stressed. Shortly afterwards the fry were eaten (not sure by which parent).

As for how long it takes for the fry to start looking like fish here is a pic of some fry about 1.5 months old:
http://members.shaw.ca/molino/Fry~1.5mths.jpg
There are starting to look like fish but are still very small. I have heard that they will grow faster if left with the parents.

[FishmasteR2002]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! :D

I just bought a small convict myself and I love him. I hope to breed him when I get more room for tanks. Good Luck with the fry. :)

[latazyo]

alright, well, I haven't decided what to do about removing the parents yet...

if the parents eat this batch, will they eventually learn and become good parents?

also

what do you feed the fry?

[Mr.Jingles]

I have no tests or evidence leading to my theory, but thought has propelled it.

My idea about why fish parenting degenerates over the generations is that they are not raised in a parenting or threatening environment. It is easiest for fish farms to let the fish lay the eggs and then remove the parents. The fry then grow up with the entire batch. This allows many more fish to be sold than when they are kept with parents. In the wild, fish are constantly facing the threat of survival. Whos going to attack me next? Where is that bigger fish that may eat me? Those other fish better stay away from these babies, or ill beat them down...So naturally, they take care of their babies. Some fish have adapted to different methods of breeding, but cichlids in general stay in one area to breed. This sitting still in one area leads to easy predation of the fry. The need to protect them in order for the population of fish to survive is hightened and measures are taken to ensure that the babies survive.

So, my idea would be to communitize the tank. Add the breeding pair to a larger tank with some top dwelling fish that wont bug the babies, but will pose a threat. Then let the cichlids raise the babies untill they get it down and remove the babies slowly so as to simulate the seperation of the babies from the parents naturally. Although this is all thought up, it could stimulate parenting behaviors. Some cichlids just dont know how to be parents tho, so this plan would work to varying degrees.

[friend of oscar]

This is just an opinion but I believe it would just be better to leave the fry with the parents atleast until they are a month or a little older. If you do this than the parents would learn better to take care of the babies. Cause like if you take them away or seperate them than the parents won't get any excperiance taking care of babies and thye might mess up future batches. Just my 2 cents. Good luck with them. I have had several batchs of con fry in the past and I jsut love watching them. Well goodluck!

[latazyo]

do I need to feed the fry?

[Anton Wernher]

Start feeding with them with something along the lines of Artemia nauplii or high quality "powdered" dry food.

[latazyo]

Originally posted by Anton Wernher
Artemia nauplii


uhh...you're goin to need to translate that into English for me real quick...hehe...I don't know what that is

[BigOh]

Brine Shrimp.

[Ronne]

You don't need to think about feeding the fry for at least 2-3 weeks. They get nutrition from their yolk sac and from there the parents will stir up the gravel to provide bits of stuff to eat. You'll notice that they'll nibble on algae too. Once they're a little bigger you can crush flakes into small crumbs/powder and they'll do fine with that. The best part is watching the adults digging food for the fry and having the school all feeding together!

[friend of oscar]

I have just always used crushed up flakes. I've even one time put feeder guppies in the tank for the parent s and the female killed one and she would rip it up and spit out pieces and the babies would swarm around and eat it. It was pretty facsinating to watch. Good luck with them. Im asking for a 10 gallon tank for christmas so if I get it I might get a small pair of convicts. Have a good day!

[latazyo]

exactly what I have small pair in a ten g with one cave....seems to be the perfect environment

after this batch of fry is done they're moving up to the 75g though, so they'll be livin large