Predator prey balance in 240 gal tank.

[Cutbait]

Four breeding pair of convicts with plenty of cover (rocks), 1 Festea, 1 Beani, 1 Jack Dempsey, 1 Oscar, 1 Chocolate Cichlid, 1 Green Terror,
1 Salvini, 1 Firemouth.

I'm setting this experiment into motion. Most of these fish are juveniles. As everything matures the Convicts will supply the live feed portion of my other fishes diets.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I am posting in order to follow this idea. I have never done anything like this so my responses will be guesses.
My first guess being a 240 may not be large enough to sustain a somewhat regular number of live food prey.
My second guess is that the convict fry will not get much growth before eaten.

 

[kiwiraka]

From what I've read, even with all those predators you'll still likely end up with hundreds of convicts.

 

[TheLastKon]

Doesn't hurt trying. But like u said most of the fry will be eaten before getting any size. And any that survive might end up pairing up with other your other fish.

 

[celebrist]

I tried this with guppies in a 150 with a pink tail and an African knife. They went extinct. I would like to try something like this again
I hope it works, keep us posted and pics of the shelter you scaped would be awesome

 

[Boomer1224]

good luck with your project

 

[Chub_by]

Just posting to follow, can't see it working though

 

[dan518]

I think you stand the chance of being over run by convicts eventually, mature breeding convicts could quite easily terrorise alot of your stock.

 

[robham777]

I think you will end up with 1 festae, 1 salvini, and 100 convicts, but you never know till you try.

 

[J. H.]

I think you stand the chance of being over run by convicts eventually, mature breeding convicts could quite easily terrorise alot of your stock.

Yes, and convicts mature faster than most cichlids, which can turn your tank into a massacre very quickly.
II know of people successfully doing this with mollies, the trick is to make sure the adults are big enough not to be eaten and not capable of destroying your main stock.