i BET YOU'VE NEVER HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE ;)

[gonefishin]

He HE........

I've got convict fry. yaaaaaah!!!! big news huh? But seriously, its my 1st successful brood (my jewels dine regularly on caviar) and i'm pretty excited. I need to update my profile as i've removed all thier tankmates. They hatched on tuesday and are now swimming arround like little chick-lids. My lfs is going to take them once they are big enough and trade for food credit. Now, for the questions (you thoght you wouldn't have to work after reading this?)

how big/how long till they can be removed. mom and dad are both doing great jobs as parrents and even know to keep them away from the filter inlet, I don't want to upset thier program.

I noticed mom chewing and spitting out flakes and the fry trying to eat it. When can I stop using liquifry? it's pricey arround here and I'd like to have some left for next time.

and finally, what is the danger of inbreeding. Like if I kept a few, let 'em grow, then they.....uh ... hehe did it....?

I did a search in the archives, but can you imagine how many posts there are involving convict fry? its like tryng to find a PARTICULAR needle in a stack of needles!!!! thanx in advance for any and all help.

[gsk177]

Congrats on the fry...even though I've never had any problem getting mine to hatch.

Heck, I even had mom and dad in a 55 with a JD and a Green Terror. Not sure if mine were just big enough to defend or what, but they were hell on wheels when they had eggs.

I've got a tank at my office that I put a male and female in just so the kids who visit would be able to see little baby fishies as they call them.

I took these two, mom and dad (bro and sis) from another batch I hatched and put them in a 20g. Within 3 days of being in there, they laid their first eggs. Id have to say they were no more than 3 or 4 months old.
Much to my surprise, about 3 months later, they laid another batch...even with their first batch still swimming around. Some of the new fry got eaten by their older sibblings, but it amazed me how mom and dad never really ''protected'' the new fry from their older sibblings.
Its been over 4 months now and they haven't laid anymore eggs.

Now to your questions....

I noticed my fry eating flake as soon as they were old enough to swim freely...example, they actually looked like fish. I've never fed mine liquifry or anything for that matter.
When they get old enough to swim freely, just feed some flake that you kind of grind up to powder before you put it in the tank. Don't worry, the little buggers will be feeding like piranahs in no time.

Like I said, the two parents in my 20g at the office are bro and sis and I can't tell that anythings wrong with any of the offspring. I'm sure they are not as 100% as they might be if they were not inbred, but I mainly raised convict fry for feeders for my bigger cichlids and such.
But they have had some gorgeous children. There are at least a dozen or so who are much more colorfull (if convicts can even be colorfull) than the others.
I too have a LFS who will take the fry in on credit so at least the ones that are too big to feed to my cichlids will get a good home somewhere.

[gonefishin]

thanks for the help. this tank is also in my office for the same reason. I work at a resort in tahoe where we get a lot of kids. even my boss brings her 2 year old and 6 month old and they both love to sit and watch the "fichies". I've been doing cichlids since I was 8 years old but I never tried to get a male-female pair. this is exciting for me, especially since I spend about $30-$50 a month on food for the tanks I care for.(I also have a few friends who I help with thier fish). again, thanx and I will keep everyone posted on my progress.

[Lila]

Inbreeding, I had wondered about that too. With my cons, the father bred with his daughter. We weren't trying to breed them, but they did. Unfortunately, the fry was eaten by the other fish.

;)

Lila