Are Convicts Social ?

[Walzon1]

I've had my convict about 3 years, crowded cichlid tank before and now by herself with tiger barbs as dithers. She is doing terrible, healthy yes but not very active rarely even seen in the tank always hiding. she was doing better in a tank with other cichlids. I've started thinking, are cons better in groups of 6 or more like other types of cichlids??

 

[convict360]

I've had my convict about 3 years, crowded cichlid tank before and now by herself with tiger barbs as dithers. She is doing terrible, healthy yes but not very active rarely even seen in the tank always hiding. she was doing better in a tank with other cichlids. I've started thinking, are cons better in groups of 6 or more like other types of cichlids??

i think they do ok alone, i'd start looking at other reasons for her behaviour; plenty of hiding spaces? treated for parasites? These are problems i've encountered in the past, that could be culprit

 

[Hoplo]

Never noticed those sorts of behaviours due to being lonely myself, I have kept them as the only cichlid in the tank before many times. It may be something else as said above, or maybe it is just used to there being other fish around, and ti is just that individual.

 

[typicalalex1]

I've only ever had 1 convict that was hiding, it was getting the crap kicked out of it by the GT. It was fine after the GT was re homed.
The one i have now is very active.

Either it's being picked on, it has a health issue or it's just how this individual convict behaves.

 

[Blue Bear]

How long has it been since you changed it to he tank with the barbs? Does the tank now have more hiding places than the other one? I had cons in the past that would swim around everywhere in a tank without many hiding places and as soon as I moved them into a tank with more hiding places they stayed in the caves.

 

[MonsterFishCreeper]

Check its fins out to make sure the barbs aren't nipping at it.

 

[ehh]

I have my male with a big group of barbs and he's a little shy.

 

[Walzon1]

You guys were right I guess it was a health issue found her today on her side, still breathing and good color as I was holding her to get her up and swimming again and all of a sudden she had a seizure. She lost all color immediately and appeared dead, after about 30 seconds she revived color came back gill function came back. I removed her to a small holding bin to watch her closer and again pectoral fins pushed completely forward and gill function stopped color loss and appeared lifeless so I decided to put her down than let her suffer not sure how long it's been going on or what caused it outward appearance she was in good health.

Original bought a group of 6 females till they started breeding and all hell broke loose. Yes even females will pair up.....I bought her for my daughter at about 3/4 inch we called her TINY ..after got rid of most her tank mates decided to go planted with tons of plants plenty of hiding spaces. That's when she started to hide a lot pick at the gravel here and there and picking on tankmates that were too close but She was definitely a shy fish. After all other cichlids in the tank were moved or sold she was alone for awhile and the tank was not active at all. Decided she needed less aggressive tank mates so got a school of 12 tiger barbs she responded really well and saw her a lot more often. After moving everyone to a new heavily planted tank she started getting worse this was about 6 months ago coming out less and less last 2 months to the point I had to make sure she was even in the tank. If it wasn't feeding time she was never out. Was thinking maybe she just didn't like the tank was just about to build her a new home with rockwork and some other cichlids again to try to get her out more.

Sorry for such a long post IDK Maybe it was just her time bought 7/1/2012 - 4/12/16 RIP TINY

 

[ehh]

dang. :-/ four years is a lot longer than most people can keep fish alive... or even keep a fish.

 

[Dylan Miller]

I've had my convict about 3 years, crowded cichlid tank before and now by herself with tiger barbs as dithers. She is doing terrible, healthy yes but not very active rarely even seen in the tank always hiding. she was doing better in a tank with other cichlids. I've started thinking, are cons better in groups of 6 or more like other types of cichlids??

Many Cichlids, especially Central American Cichlids don't do well with change. They set up territories that they may defend for their whole life, so acclimation to a new environment can be stressful for them. They're smart fish!