Size of the fight in the fish

Mystroe_TheMyst

Mystroe_TheMyst

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Dec 16, 2002
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convicts are well known for their aggression to size ratio. that is why i am worried about introducing a female to my male. the male is about 4"-5" pretty much the biggest he will be. I've moved him down to a 2ft x 1ft x 15" tank, but he is so happy, interacts with me and its like a 2ft terrority with mines and caves. anyways i bought a female for him not long ago and she is tiny cause lfs wouldn't get me a good size one. what is the smallest working ratio of size to breed? :) stories of how a 2" fish bred with a 4-5" fish would be nice

thanks guys
 
The pair of convicts I have seen where the male is the size yours is the female was about a third smaller than the male. The females will get some orange color on them when they get to breeding interest. How much color is on your female?

There was a smaller pair in the tank I saw the above. the male was the size of the above female and the female was only 1.5 to 2 inches. I would consider actual age more important than size. Non dominant fish won't get to the same size as the main pair.

I have seen deviders with holes made small enough for the female to escape through but not the larger male. that might be one way to introduce your female to the tank.
 
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You dont need to worry about her she will be fine with him. Convicts, I think, are one of the more aggressive cichlids around ...kinda like a short person with a tempure... :rant: ....... :p: .....but one think I gotta warn u about is that they will breed like crazy! there are reports of them breeding every 2 weeks!!! so becareful with that and most petshops, in california at least, have to be begged to just take them off ur hands!....so no cash or store credit there....they are only cool if u just wanna study how they live. honestly I think convicts can breed in a bucket if the water was kept clean.
 
yeah well i have no trouble with getting rid of 1000's of fry, there are my pair of gold severums, other male convict ( same size ), keyholes, loaches and platy's (river stream). so they could more probably than not churn through good live fry in no time at all. but i want to keep a few and try and selectively breed some traits, like the male has a really nice hump on him so hopefully i can get that to show. well the female is always showing her colours, always orange on the fins and belly. I was thinking about putting a small pipe in which she could only fit in. but i think i wait till she reaches a better size. I haven't had much sucess with breeding so i thought i would start simple, and if I can't do con's then not much hope for me is there :P

thanks for the info, if there are any more size ratio's, i would love to know about them for my own peace of mind.
 
you have other fish in with the male convict? If you do, don't add the female. The male will start being very aggressive toward the other fish as soon as the female enters the tank. He will not bother the female too much if she has places to hide they will quickly be a pair and defend a nest site. All other fish in the tank will be in danger once the cons pair up. I have heard of people keeping cons in community tanks but I don't think I would try it. The cons need a tank of their own. If the female has already started showing colors she will be fine in the tank with the male. You could use a couple common mollies as dither fish until the cons pair up to save the female some aggravation.
 
Question

I have breeded convicts in the past. I used to put my eggs in a seperate tanks to raise the frys. Question is will the parents protect the frys or eat them? I have 2 cichlid tanks and I am thinking about my new fish arangement.
 
I have had cons with two sets of fry at a time and not eat any from either set of fry. The cons will protect the fry to the point of killing every other fish in the tank that they can.
 
Thanks tlaug,
Thats just what I needed to know.
 
Nah i don't have any other fish in with the con so but the sounds of things she will be fine? so 2morro or tonight will be the day of judgement...hopefully you guys are right, if not i will have to track you guys down :P she was always showing her colours, thats how i picked her from all the juvi's in the tank at the shop. neways I will keep you up to date.

hope they are ready.. i am so very excited!
 
Well I put her in last night and he just went spastic, he just went crazy in love and start doing the whole shakey shakey. I stayed up for a long as I could to stay up and watch them. I renamed him dumb dumb cause she kept luring him into the chosen cave, but he quickly lost interest cause he couldn't find her. So she would come out again and then he would be all happy again, then it would start over again. was so funny, she tried so hard to get his attension. But they are definatly a pair now so that is good. I can't wait till she lays her eggs, how long do you think it will take for her to prep them up? He is a bit rough with her but she holds her own, if not she evades into a small pipe in which he cannot follow so...

so last thing is how long will it take for her eggs to prep up and what happens once he gets them goin to so speak. :)
 
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