ID Help: Convicts? What to do with them?

[cynicalcriminal]

Hi folks,

I recently purchased a larger tank from a friend of the family. He upgraded so I upgraded.

I now have a 55 gallon. Hurray!


Issue though: He showed up afterward with a couple large plastic containers full of fish, and said he did not want them anymore, and if I did not take them he was going to "throw'um out on the lawn."

So .. needless to say, I took them, and now feel WAY overpopulated in this 55 gallon tank.

So .. are these Convicts?

Something Fishy

Fishy 2?

If so .. what do I do with them? The LFS told me that if they're convicts they won't take them back. I literally have 55 gallons of water and over 20 of these things, the largest being the biggest fish I've ever owned.

I'm afraid they'll spawn or something as well, and I'll have one solid square brick of immobile fish and no water left in my tank.

 

[ibr3ak]

Yea those are convicts and they are literally the hardest fish to get rid of, try posting a couple free ads on craigslist and forums maybe someone will take them.

 

[Pittbull]

yeah convicts fo sure aye, wow you will have a hard time getting rid of these throw em on craigs list in your area www.craigslist.com free to a good home and see what happens..

 

[cynicalcriminal]

Ugh .. well, thanks for the positive ID you two ... sadly, that was what I was afraid of.

They don't seem like bad fish to me .. they DID kill off a couple of my smaller fish, but that kinda' thing is almost expected when I totally change the ecosystem to such a degree.

So .. great .. I have an overpopulated prison-system for a tank now.


Well .. put them on Craigslist like you suggested: http://albany.craigslist.org/pet/852760127.html

Here is hoping I find someone that'll take at least a few of them before I have to start pondering how to dispose of them



Only one of them, one of the B&W ones, has a "pink belly" out of all the fish. I was told that was the female? .. if so .. maybe since theres only 1 of her I won't have a big population explosion anytime soon.

 

[Pittbull]

yeah right wow all those boys and one little girl they will probably kill her from harassment and beat each other up in the process, i def get her out of there.. good luck my friend..

 

[Pittbull]

wow that craigs post was way funny my friend good job..

 

[jameshilljr]

your tank is not overstocked...but it will soon be...
It's too bad you don't have any larger predatory fish-you would have a good supply of feeders

 

[TH3RD_LEG]

They are all correct that one female will have the boys going crazy fighting for dominance - and she can lay over 150 eggs in one sitting so yeah get her out of that tank unless you want 100's of babies soon.

I have convicts and they breed like crazy so crazy that sometimes you can't even give them away

But I refuse to use them as feeders

I have noticed that if there are babies in tank the parents will guard them well and will not reproduce till those babies are large so the best birth control for me is to leave babies in there thus preventing parents from making more.

Oh yeah and also some females do not show red bellies until they are in breeding state - but are still femaleslol

Here are my babies now about 2 months old

Luis

 

[excuzzzeme]

I also have convicts and I have 3 females that have spawned. The fourth female spawned sometime back and luckily all the fry became fish food. I still have about 100 fry left. When it comes to convicts, just add water and wait. Two will become 200 in a year's time.

 

[cynicalcriminal]

Well, they're all gone.

I gave a dozen or so away to people off Craigslist and was waiting to get more people in here to grab another round of fish.

I came home from work one day and found my 4-5 year old Pleco in the corner of the tank (it rarely would come out in the day). The convicts had it cornered and were attacking it ... it was already dead by the time I had gotten home.

So at that point, every convict in the tank had to go ... I don't know who was guilty and who wasn't .. but they all went to the LFS (who were NOT happy to see me come in with around 20 convicts).



Happily, I adopted saltwater fish from someone who was getting rid of their tank ... never had saltwater before, but they all seem mostly docile and happy.

I'm still bummed about my Pleco tho