View Full Version : Will they breed?
Oscar_Mania
06-25-2004, 1:19 PM
I went to the lfs and bought a female convict ( two days ago) to put in with my male convict with the hope that they would breed. The male right now is just chasing her around and her fins are all torn. Is this normal for convicts before they become interested in one another? I'm sure it is a female as she has a lot of orange on her belly and dorsal fin. The female is about 2 inch. and the male is 3 inch. They are in a 10 gallon tank. Water conditions are fine.
Sounds like normal "cichlid spousal abuse." :D
My cons do that all the time right before they breed.
Oscar_Mania
06-25-2004, 8:57 PM
Alright, that makes me feel a lot better. I'm new to breeding fish, so I'm still learning what to look for before they start breeding. I've done a bit of reading so I have an idea of what happens. Thanks for the reply.
Keep a close eye on them to make sure he isnt beating her up too much. If she isnt ready/willing to spawn he will still continue to abuse her. You may have to seperate them for a bit. Usually it is the female you add to the tank first so she can become used to her surroundings and claim territory b4 the male does.
Keep us posted :)
LongTime
06-27-2004, 4:12 PM
Increase the number of hiding places. I have a small rock cave that only 1 convict can fit in at a time. My female takes refuge in there and she is able to keep the male out. She nips him every time he tries to stick his head in. He doesn't back down for long, but he does give her a little rest.
Oscar_Mania
06-28-2004, 12:29 PM
well the amount of abuse has gone down from the male since I last posted. They seem to have their certain places where they stay for most of the day. In the morning the female ventures out and I even found the two of them under a slanted rock together. I've seen the male go up to her spread his fins and then go back into his hiding spot. He does this over and over. I don't think the feamle is ready because she doesn't really respond to it. At least all the nipping and chasing has stopped.
Oscar_Mania
06-28-2004, 9:23 PM
Has anyone had or have a pair of convicts that took a long time to pair off? Mine don't seem to be pairing off and I've had them for 5 days or so.
Give it a little more time. Even though these are Convict Cichlids...you are placing two fish together without giving them a chance to actually pick their mate (which they would be able to do in a small group).
What are your water conditions btw? Although Convicts arent picky by any means....they do prefer hard, basic water. Having the Ph above 7.0 is a really good thing. If you want, you can raise the temperature to 80*F.
What do you feed ur Convicts?
Oscar_Mania
06-29-2004, 12:16 PM
The pH is at 7.6, ammonia is at 0, and the nitrites are at 0. I'm not sure about nitrates and water hardness though. I feed my convicts blood worms, frozen cichlid chow, nutrafin floating cichlid sticks, hikari cichlid gold pellets, krill, and wardley slow sinking cichlid crumbles.
Whoa...that's quite the variety of foods :P :) Very cool.
My Convicts LOVE blood worms!
LongTime
06-30-2004, 2:52 PM
Originally posted by Oscar_Mania
Has anyone had or have a pair of convicts that took a long time to pair off? Mine don't seem to be pairing off and I've had them for 5 days or so.
Give them time. Five days isn't a lot of time to get to know each other and settle into a new home.
Once they are ready, get ready for a bunch of fry! :)
I think my pair took a couple of weeks to actually pair up. I too, thought they would go right at it as soon as I put them together. ;)
Oscar_Mania
07-02-2004, 12:08 PM
Well good news this morning. My two convicts seem to be hanging out together now. The female is going from cave to cave and the male is swimming along with her. Her orange colour looks more intense also. Looks like they might be getting ready to have some fry. :)
Yep :) Sounds like it.
Be patient...eventually you WILL have tons of babies. :)
Oscar_Mania
07-02-2004, 4:11 PM
Well, here is the latest update. The two are now building a nest in the clay flower pot I have in there. I'm very excited as this is my first time breeding fish. I'm very fascinated about this.
:) Very cool. It's definately an interesting experience.
Just a note though - since your Convicts are also not experienced, they may eat their eggs the first couple of times they lay them (eventhough this is likely to not happen, since Convicts are extremely good parents).
BTW...what kind of Convicts are they? Zebra? Pink?.........if you have Marble Convicts I will be so jealous of you!!!
Oscar_Mania
07-02-2004, 8:12 PM
They are zebra convicts. Where I live they are the only ones available. I've never seen pink or marble convicts in my area.
Oh really?
hmm...odd.
If you at least have a Wal-Mart...then they should have Pink ones. All of the Wal-Marts Ive been to always have Zebra and Pink Convicts.
Ive never seen Marble though. I thinks those are more distributed in Europe. I sooo wish I could get a pair.... :( *sigh*
Oscar_Mania
07-02-2004, 11:52 PM
The Wal-Mart in my area doesn't have a large stock of fish. I've never seen convicts there. I think I've only seen yellow labs and firemouths. There is a lfs that has some of the less common species of fish, but they too only carry zebra convicts.
Oh really? Hmm...well, if you are ever at your Wal-Mart again, ask the employee to order Pink Convicts in for you. Get him/her to leave a message for the person responsible for ordering the fish in...or even try to talk to this person yourself (that is, if you want them to begin with!! :P )
My Wal-Mart will order certain fish in whenever I ask - eventhough what they CAN get in is quite limited.