breeding cons

[RICHIE]

ive got a pair of cons that have paired off and started building a nest. how long should it be before the female lays her eggs? should i continur doing my weekly water change?
by the way. my tank is 55g , with 2 gts, 4 cons ,and 1 firemouth. the breedihg cons have no trouble defending their nest.

[vato]

I would discontinue the weekly water changes if you intend for them too breed. Leave them alone as much as possible. If you can avoid the tank, I'd do so. But Convicts do breed like rabbits, so they may not even be disturbed by you being around. If they are a new breeding pair it may take them a few days to produce eggs. And if it is an older pair, they will most likely mate and be ready to have babies in a day or so. You know they are courting when they shake their heads at each other, if they have done this, be on the lookout, there be babies coming soon!

[RICHIE]

the cons have built a nest . the female sits in the nest and the male defends the area. does this mean they are going to lay eggs soon?

[vato]

If the male is guarding the nest either they have bred, are ready to breed, or think they have bred. If there are no eggs in a a couple days you may have a sterile fish.(?)

[RICHIE]

thanks,ill let you know what happens

[vato]

Sounds good! If you are succesful with these two, then you should probably have about 4 batches a year! If you find a place to sel them (at a LFS) then they can provide you a bit of income! Hope everything works out. We'll hear from you in a few days!

[Rocketman]

I breed convicts as well.

What I've found is that it is best to remove as many fry as you can about 4-7 days after they've hatched. You want to leave a few in so the parents dont get angry and kill each other - it's happened. Put them in as small a tank as you can, preferably with an air filter, (as opposed to a power filter,) and raise them there. You have a variety of things you can feed them, I've found that the San Fransisco Frozen Baby Brine Shrimp work great - just drop a cube in (from the 50g packages) and they'll go at it. Once they get a little older you'll be able to feed them flakes and other things.

My convicts breed about every 3-5 weeks, and produce about 50 fry every time. They will eat them all withen a couple weeks unless I remove them though.

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

this is a formula on how to get a breeding pair of cons
tank(T)+water(W)+cave(C)+m con(MC)+f con(FC)= heaps of fry lol

T+W+C+MC+FC=F :D

just suck the fry up or make a trap with a coke bottle

cut bottle 2/3s of the way up then place the nozzel inside and glue then place food in the trap and they fry will go in and its hard for them to get out.

[RICHIE]

my female con laid eggs last night. how long before they hatch?

[Rocketman]

1.5-3 days...usually about 2

[vato]

the norm is about 48 hours. Don't forget to tell us what happens when they hatch!

[RICHIE]

the con eggs still havent hatched. they were laid saturday night.
now my pair of gt,s are building a nest .
i also have another pair of cons that are chaing each other around. must be something in the air.
is their enough room in a 55 gal. for 3 pair of fish to breed at the same time?
so far the gt,s and the cons are on opposite ends of the tank , and dont seem to bother each other.
the 2nd pair of cons havent found a spot to build a nest yet.

[Rocketman]

It's possible (although in this case not likely,) that the male didn't fertilize the eggs. A lot of times the female will lay eggs with no mate. That's not what the problem is now, that's just an FYI. It's still been less than 2 days though so don't worry.