convicts

nmrsco said:
how big is your tank? I dont think my 25 gal is big enough for anything more than a single con pair. I know its a small tank for them, but its the largest tank possible for me. is their any more common fish I could use as a target/dither? my LFS has a very limited choice of fish. in fact, my cons were the first cons I ever saw at that store. thanks again for the help
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My tank is a 29 gallon. You could probably pick up a giant danio as a dither but Striped Anostomus are fairly intelligent and can hide in the tightest places out of sight. When my Convicts are in crazy breeding mode, he hides behind the filter intake. He doesn't hurt any of the fry either, but he might pick one or two off when they are really tinly. Here's a picture of him.

Striped-Anostomus.gif
 
Nice looking Cons...
 
Dontcha just love cons, full of personality! I have a large male in with my Oscars and he is the boss! I also have 2 young pairs in with my pair of Parrots, all live happily together....not breeding yet though...
 
nmrsco said:
its pretty hard to do without sucking up curious fry. also I dont really appreciate the male attacking my hands
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You could use a very small tube to siphon. Add a fine mesh netting to the end with a rubber band. You can also try siphoning with the end of the tube in one of those breeding nets. Should keep the fry away! Worth a try. :)
 
thanks for the ideas. what I do now is just stick the tube in the corner right below the surface where they don't notce it and swim over to investigate. mabe I will give your ideas a try also
 
Vicious_Fish said:
My tank is a 29 gallon. You could probably pick up a giant danio as a dither but Striped Anostomus are fairly intelligent and can hide in the tightest places out of sight. When my Convicts are in crazy breeding mode, he hides behind the filter intake. He doesn't hurt any of the fry either, but he might pick one or two off when they are really tinly. Here's a picture of him.
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thats a pretty cool fish. I could get a giant danio, but I don't think it would stand a chance against my cons. I think my tank is too small to add anything else
 
Vicious_Fish said:
To help curb aggression between the pair I have a target fish in the tank. It is a Striped Anostomus who is very fast and impossible for my convict pair to catch. If a pair has to guard the fry from something else, they take their aggression out on the target fish and not each other. It works for me, you might want to give it a try so you don't have to keep the pair seperated.
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When my pair first had fry I had red eyed tetras in the tank for them to chase around and away from their babys. Now I have a 10 inch pleco, and a 8"+ jaguar to keep away from the babys. So far so good for the babys. Daddy con every once on a while has teeth marks on his nose from the Jag, but I just think she wants so see, not eat the young. I dropped in baby cons in the tank as feeders and the Jag just watches them explorer the tank, she don't have any interest in chomping on them.
Anyway thats my story, and I'm stickin' to it.
 
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