What is wrong with my Convicts!

Progress: The 2 convicts dont fight each other often but today morning the female was missing part of her 1/8 of her tail fin. Is that pre mating behaviour?

no not usually.

regardless if its a private pond or not you shouldn't introduce new species, they can over populate, bring disease, and potentially destroy an ecosystem.

Think zebra mussels in the great lakes, kudzu vines, etc....
 
regardless if its a private pond or not you shouldn't introduce new species, they can over populate, bring disease, and potentially destroy an ecosystem.

Think zebra mussels in the great lakes, kudzu vines, etc....

Its man made closed off heated pond in so cal that is owned by my friend. Even if the Cons escape, they cant survive in so cal winter. The pond already has other species of fish. INcluding minnows, common guppy, managuense, jack dempseys, oscar, RTC, TSN, Pbass, Kois. A few LMB too i think. :evil_lol:
 
...interesting.
 
How big is this pond? And about the mating rituals of convicts, slight aggression is normal, but removing 1/8th of her fins is not. If you want to breed them, go buy a cheap 30 or 55 gal setup off craigslist, you can find them all day long for $25-50 and give them a proper home. There might be some extra un-needed aggression brewing from having other species or even families of animals in there IE: turtles to properly spawn. Parents will usually only spawn if they think their breeding ground is acceptable for raising fry. If they feel other animals will simply eat the young, they may not spawn at all.
 
How big is this pond? And about the mating rituals of convicts, slight aggression is normal, but removing 1/8th of her fins is not. If you want to breed them, go buy a cheap 30 or 55 gal setup off craigslist, you can find them all day long for $25-50 and give them a proper home. There might be some extra un-needed aggression brewing from having other species or even families of animals in there IE: turtles to properly spawn. Parents will usually only spawn if they think their breeding ground is acceptable for raising fry. If they feel other animals will simply eat the young, they may not spawn at all.
 
Ballyhoo I totally agree with you about not introducing convicts to native waters. Altough even in MI far north my buddy has a 950 gallon pond he stocks with Oscar cichlids in the summer and spring seasons and then sells them and supplies to LFS. It's not like your backyard pond, it's dug out, there's zero water ways in or out. I have to take zenyoungs word on this becuase a lot of MFKers in South Cali have these ponds made for there large aggressive cichlids. But I completely understand where your coming from amd agree 100%

Now back on topic, you should get a proper home for these fish, something is clearly wrong. By a 30-55 gallon aquarium the bigger the better remove the turtle for the convicts and add substrate some planting pots and maybe driftwood don't just throw the two onto a plastic bin with water and expect results. Yes the saying for convicts goes "just add water, food, and convicts. And you'll get a spawn" but this isn't entirely true. Give them a chance to have a nice heated aquarium where you can enjoy your fish. I put my fry in plastic bins only because of the size and space. It's perfect for growing out fry, but not really breeding fish.
 
Now back on topic, you should get a proper home for these fish, something is clearly wrong. By a 30-55 gallon aquarium the bigger the better remove the turtle for the convicts and add substrate some planting pots and maybe driftwood don't just throw the two onto a plastic bin with water and expect results. Yes the saying for convicts goes "just add water, food, and convicts. And you'll get a spawn" but this isn't entirely true. Give them a chance to have a nice heated aquarium where you can enjoy your fish. I put my fry in plastic bins only because of the size and space. It's perfect for growing out fry, but not really breeding fish.

Please read my first post, i have 2 planting pots cave, 2 caves made of stacked rocks and one smaller cave ornament. Im not going to get another tank, itll cost >$100. This is a nice heated tank and i enjoy it. PLastic bins also make good home. Incase you havent noticed, the sides of rivers are not see through. Many fish farms have their fish breed in concrete pond that are not see through too.:duh:
 
I think the biggest thing isn't whether or not it's see thru or appealing to the eye, I believe what most other are saying, myself included, is the tankmates and lack of substrate etc may be causing you problems. Trust me, I have have 58 aquariums, go on craigslist! You can find an entire setup, tank, lights, heater, filter, gravel and decoration for under $50. It sounds crazy because we go spend hundreds of dollars on stuff at the store and people are selling it dirt cheap, but more often than not, those people spent the big bucks, couldn't handle it, stored it for 2 years, it took up to much space so they just wan to get rid of it quick.

Btw, hatcheries also use 10's if thousands of gallon ponds, that does differ quite a bit from a large rubbermaid container.
 
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