I just bought a breeding pair of black convicts. i was planning on putting them in a 20 gallon tank that im getting from my aunt. Right now theyre in my 75 gallon tank but i want them seperated so theyre babies wont get eaten. How should i set up this 20 gallon tank?
Breeding Convicts
- Thread starter CCchaos04
- Start date
As short as the last post was, its true. Convicts will breed like rabbits and guppies.
I've had mine breed within 3 days of being introducted into a new tank. They have bred in water as warm as 82 degrees and as cold as 68 degrees. They have bred with other fish in the tank as well as with other fry in the tank.
If they are in fact a breeding pair, they will breed wherever you put them.
Put them in the 20g (thats where I have mine) with some water, a filter, a heater (I keep mine set at 75) and some place for them to lay their eggs. I use a piece of texas holley rock, but you can use any rock, driftwood, pvc pipe, glass bowl, clay pot, whatever you have on hand. Just place it on the opposite end of the tank from your filter.
I would expect your pair to breed within a couple weeks at the most.
When the eggs come and the eventual babies, you still do not have to do anything special. Just continue to feed like normal, perhaps crushing some extra flake and letting it settle to the bottom of the tank. I've bought the liquifry before and noticed no difference between using it and using crushed flake. Mom and dad will stir up food that has settled at the bottom to feed them.
Within about a week of being hatched, the fry will readily swim to the surface to eat your crushed flake. In a couple weeks from that, just feed straight flake as you would to feed the mom and dad.
On a side note, depending on the strength of your filter, you may need to place a sponge on the intake tube if you notice the babies getting sucked up.
All in all, you should have NO problems getting healthy fry from your Convicts. If you do, something is drastically wrong. In fact, if you have an additional 20g tank, you can keep two tanks running at all times and remove mom and dad once the new fry have hatched and put them in the other 20g. You will have to use liquifry for feeding for about a week, but mom and dad will breed again in a week or so.
Just make sure you have an outsource for your new fry or you will soon be overwhelmed. A LFS might take the fry off your hands, but do not expect a huge sum of $$ for them.
I've had mine breed within 3 days of being introducted into a new tank. They have bred in water as warm as 82 degrees and as cold as 68 degrees. They have bred with other fish in the tank as well as with other fry in the tank.
If they are in fact a breeding pair, they will breed wherever you put them.
Put them in the 20g (thats where I have mine) with some water, a filter, a heater (I keep mine set at 75) and some place for them to lay their eggs. I use a piece of texas holley rock, but you can use any rock, driftwood, pvc pipe, glass bowl, clay pot, whatever you have on hand. Just place it on the opposite end of the tank from your filter.
I would expect your pair to breed within a couple weeks at the most.
When the eggs come and the eventual babies, you still do not have to do anything special. Just continue to feed like normal, perhaps crushing some extra flake and letting it settle to the bottom of the tank. I've bought the liquifry before and noticed no difference between using it and using crushed flake. Mom and dad will stir up food that has settled at the bottom to feed them.
Within about a week of being hatched, the fry will readily swim to the surface to eat your crushed flake. In a couple weeks from that, just feed straight flake as you would to feed the mom and dad.
On a side note, depending on the strength of your filter, you may need to place a sponge on the intake tube if you notice the babies getting sucked up.
All in all, you should have NO problems getting healthy fry from your Convicts. If you do, something is drastically wrong. In fact, if you have an additional 20g tank, you can keep two tanks running at all times and remove mom and dad once the new fry have hatched and put them in the other 20g. You will have to use liquifry for feeding for about a week, but mom and dad will breed again in a week or so.
Just make sure you have an outsource for your new fry or you will soon be overwhelmed. A LFS might take the fry off your hands, but do not expect a huge sum of $$ for them.
