Convicts or similar to end fish keeping woes?

[ahud]

I have had my fair share of fish trouble lately. I purchased a wild group of A. cacatuoides back in August. I lost all three females and one male one by one in quarantine. Luckily, the fish had bred quickly so I have fry growing out. My f1 rainbow cichlids had a bout of camallanus worms and have been reluctant to spawn for a long while now.

I'm bored with my tanks since nothing is spawning. I'm leaning towards grabbing a couple of pair of convicts to end the dry spell. The cichlasoma sp. 'Esmeraldas gold' had me considering doing something like that. Anybody care to suggest a feisty easy keeper to enjoy in a 125g while my Apistogramma fry are growing out? My water is soft and acidic, so convicts and rainbow cichlids are about the only centrals that do well in my water.

Convicts seem the natural choice and are fun to watch defend their fry. But I have never spawned any of the medium sized acaras.

 

[BMac91]

Just be prepared to be overrun with them. I think most of us here have done the convict thing at one time or another and they will breed you out of house and home quickly. Your babies are having babies before you blink.

 

[Covetous]

I vote Cryptoheros sajica! They’re just like convicts, easy to breed and hardy. But prettier, with great personalities.

 

[ahud]

I have had convicts have a dozen times or more. I love watching them. I always keep them with a large group of tetras to thin down the fry.

I have never kept sajica. I wonder if the water softness would be a problem for them. C. cutteri and C. chetumalensis spawned easily for me. I had trouble with nanos, honduran red points, and myrnae. I guess some Cryptoheros are more forgiving than others in regards to soft water.

 

[Covetous]

I have had convicts have a dozen times or more. I love watching them. I always keep them with a large group of tetras to thin down the fry.

I have never kept sajica. I wonder if the water softness would be a problem for them. C. cutteri and C. chetumalensis spawned easily for me. I had trouble with nanos, honduran red points, and myrnae. I guess some Cryptoheros are more forgiving than others in regards to soft water.

I have never personally kept sajica in soft water, i live in Florida where all our water is that of a squashed rock.

However I have had friends keep and breed them successfully in soft water without issue. I would imagine it depends on the generations removed from the wild of the particular fish your getting. And the tanks they where bred in before you received them.

 

[ryansmith83]

I’m not sure if you’re trying to stick with SA/CA, but have you considered West Africans? Lots of pretty Pelvicachromis, Enigmatochromis, etc. that come from softer water and are usually pretty easy spawners.

When it comes to dwarves I actually tend to like Westies better than SA apistos. I raised out a pair of E. lucanusi with my Dicrossus and never had aggression issues. The females are a beautiful purple when spawning with a neon turquoise dorsal fin.

 

[ahud]

I’m not sure if you’re trying to stick with SA/CA, but have you considered West Africans? Lots of pretty Pelvicachromis, Enigmatochromis, etc. that come from softer water and are usually pretty easy spawners.

When it comes to dwarves I actually tend to like Westies better than SA apistos. I raised out a pair of E. lucanusi with my Dicrossus and never had aggression issues. The females are a beautiful purple when spawning with a neon turquoise dorsal fin.

I have not kept any of the Pelvicachromis species. That is a good suggestion.

You are really the one that kicked this off. Those feisty acaras you have were fun to watch guarding fry.

 

[NW Cichlid Keith]

Do Sajica or HRP - you will be able to find homes for the babies

 

[ryansmith83]

Another favorite, though I’m having a hell of a time finding them lately, are Panamius panamensis. They used to be classified as Cryptoheros. I had a trio once that I purchased from another hobbyist but the pair murdered the spare female and the remaining two had constant issues with internal parasites (which also was the case with the other fish I bought from said hobbyist, so I don’t think he’d cared for any of his stock properly).

They are convict-like in their behavior and aggression, but supposedly they are very easily spawned and IMO have gorgeous spawning colors — black and pink with blue eyes. The only thing I cannot find are water parameters for them; one site says pH 7 - 8, another mentions how adaptable and hardy they are. It’s possible they’d do fine in your water. If not you could always just add a bag of crushed coral and some Epsom salt to bring up the magnesium and calcium.

 

[TheMoneyTank(TMT)]

I have had my fair share of fish trouble lately. I purchased a wild group of A. cacatuoides back in August. I lost all three females and one male one by one in quarantine. Luckily, the fish had bred quickly so I have fry growing out. My f1 rainbow cichlids had a bout of camallanus worms and have been reluctant to spawn for a long while now.

I'm bored with my tanks since nothing is spawning. I'm leaning towards grabbing a couple of pair of convicts to end the dry spell. The cichlasoma sp. 'Esmeraldas gold' had me considering doing something like that. Anybody care to suggest a feisty easy keeper to enjoy in a 125g while my Apistogramma fry are growing out? My water is soft and acidic, so convicts and rainbow cichlids are about the only centrals that do well in my water.

Convicts seem the natural choice and are fun to watch defend their fry. But I have never spawned any of the medium sized acaras.

You could try breeding keyhole cichlids,port acara,blue acara,Ellioti cichlids,firemouth cichlids,sajica cichlids all are small/medium sized cichlids which are feisty but not too feisty