View Full Version : convicts as feeders........
dave76
08-26-2003, 1:19 PM
My cons have a batch of fry, they are free swimming I would say about a week old give or take a few days. I had planned on using them as feeders. My other tank is a 100 gallon with a 2" JD a 5" GT and a 1" texas. My question is this....has anyone done this succesfully, if so do you have any tips? When should I remove the fry from thier parents, I was thinking I should do it when they are either about a 1/2" or when the parents get ready to breed again? Any tips apprieciated :)
Verse914
08-26-2003, 2:40 PM
I did this for awhile and am getting back into it. I had a pair of convicts that constantly bred for me. And the faster you take away the fry from the parents, the faster theyll breed(because they wont have to protect them).
Tightdog1
08-26-2003, 8:25 PM
i do this currently and i do it every time my brothers cons have fry, as soon as they are free swimming i take them out and feed them to my baby blue acaras in my 20g. and they are gone in like a minute.
dave76
08-27-2003, 9:46 AM
So the parents dont pick on each other when you remove them that early?
optix
08-27-2003, 10:36 AM
You don't want to remove all of the fry, you want to leave at least 5 or so because if you remove all the fry the male will expect the female to immediatly spawn and usually she isn't ready. Sometimes female cons will lay eggs the very next day after a hatching if you remove the fry, but thats not always the case, and if she doesn't the male will usually kill her or bully her to near death unless you remove her.
Tightdog1
08-27-2003, 8:30 PM
i only take out about like 3/4 of the fry the rest are eaten by all the other tank mates in his tank, you can see it in my signature. if i take out too many the female does get beat on a little. but my fish all love the feeders. the feeders i use are baby dwarf platys, baby guppies and convict fry.
I do this and try to take them all out before they get very big because then I'll get attached to them. :(
stik6shift98
09-01-2003, 11:53 PM
how do u sex convicts??
Tightdog1
09-03-2003, 2:36 PM
do a search on threads on AC and you should be able to find somthing, it seems to come up like every week and i dont feel like explaining it again.
PumaWard
09-03-2003, 6:19 PM
females are smaller than males. They also have orange and yellow on their bellys, but I don't know if that's just during breeding or not.