how do you know when convicts pair?

[dave76]

I have had a female con for some time. I recently put a male con in with her in a 55 gallon and I put a firemout in there as well with some danios. They are all about the same size. They chase the firemouth and flare at each other a lot. Sometimes I come to the tank to find all of them hiding in different spots. They dont seem eager to eat all the time. I had a small .2 ppm of ammonia but I attribute that to rotting food left all day. I removed the food, and will recheck water when I get home. They dont seem to be displaying any traits of ammonia poisoning. Is this normal behavior. Oh yea. I added some more fake plants and places for them to hide. Since I have done this I rarely see any of the fish. Is this just them becoming acclimated to thier new home. They have been in the tank since saturday.

[Anaxus]

My firemouth is usually hiding all the time. He hides behind a piece of slate. I guess he is just content staying in his spot.
I think the way to tell the difference between female and male convicts is a female will have a red/orage tint on its side. It might be harder to tell if they are juvinils.

[dave76]

I know how to tell the difference between a male and female convict. I need to know what they act like when they are paired up. There have been several times where they have been face to face flared up at each other but they have never done a jaw lock. And then after a day or so all three fish have been hiding, of course I have been doing a lot of aquascaping so it might just be that. At least I hope. When they are paired do they stay by each others side? The male I have is about the same size of the female, will this cause a rejection?

[paradigmcubed]

I was able to throw to Convicts together and they bred right away. When I put my Cons together they would initially flare their gills at each other. They would also swim together, but not all the time. Two weeks after I got them they bred, now their on their third batch. (worse than rabbits) I'd wait awhile and see if the female lays eggs. I also don't think Convicts are too particular about their mates so yours should be fine just give them time.

[optix]

I agree. Convicts are like guppies in the cichlid world. All you really need is a male and female and you will have fry. I never have had problems with them in the past.

[dave76]

She has laid eggs before, about two weeks ago. She defended her cave like mad it was crazy. That is what prompted me to breed them. I can use them as feeders and if that doesnt work I bet my cat would like some of them. Do all females lay eggs even if they dont have a male?

[paradigmcubed]

I'm sure a lot of female convicts do lay eggs even if a male is present. It obviously lets you know that she is mature and if your male if about the same size you should have some baby convicts on your hands in a little while. Just to warn you, they take over a huge amount of territory and absolutely go nuts if another fish gets anywhere near their babies or eggs. I'm thinking about giving my female convict away and just keeping my male since they take over about 80% of my tank....

[dave76]

thats why I took her out of my 100 gallon before I got her a boyfriend. She was chasing my juvi JD too much anyway. and I must say that the JD is much happier now that she is gone.

[dave76]

update: my wife spied them moving rocks today from thier cave woohoo! wont be long I am sure.

[Tightdog1]

the convicts will dig in your rocks and move things around until they find a suitable breeding spot, in my brothers 55g they dug big holes in the sand to the bottom and laid eggs on the bottom glass. but the convicts he has are weird there are 2 males & 1 female, and the female is a slut she sleeps with everyone else. and has babies with each of the males.

[dave76]

ya know tightdog I have always wanted to ask you how well that 55g - 3 Convicts (1 breeding pair), 2 Firemouths, 1 Blue Acara, 1 Tiger Pleco in your auto sig worked out.....

Are all still in the 55 gallon? Are the firemouths bigger than cons? how bout the acara? Some on this forum have said that keeping anything withe a pair of cons in a 55 gallon is bad news. I just want to know how yours turned out. I Have a firemouth is my 100 Gallon that I want to move to my 55 gallon. He is a good 2-2.5 inches and bigger than either of my cons. In the 100 gallon he used to push the female con around a little. I prolly would have moved him already but I cant catch him and he wont fall for any of my fish traps.:mad: