I have had a full grown pair of convicts in my 29g tank for about 6 months now. They usually did ok. Breeding, fighting, breeding ect until about a month ago when my female seemed way too close to death. I decided to get a dither and went to petco and got a yellow african cichlid. It did well and added a lot to the tank so I decided to leave him in. I then came home from work two days later and my dad had added two more africans. I have had two convicts (5 inches and 3 inches) and 3 africans (all about 2 inches) for about a month now. It has worked so far but I'm worried it won't last. Any advice would be greatly appretiated. Thanks for reading.
Big mistake?
- Thread starter rudywieck52
- Start date
I worry about the Africans with a breeding pair of convicts. A 29 gallon tank is a pretty small space, and most of your fish will get about 6 inches. That doesn't give them a lot of room to get away from each other. When the convicts are breeding they could easily kill the Africans. I have kept convicts and Africans together but not in anything smaller than 70 gallons.
I know that the tank is too small for the set up and if a getting a bigger tank was an option I would have done so. Should I remove the africans now or wait to see if a problem begins? The cons have breed since the africans were in there and it didn't seem nearly as bad as I thought it would. The africans obviously couldnt get too close to the flower pot the cons were guarding but they were quick enough to escape damage. I think I might have a fairly mild pair of convicts.
If the convicts act that way towards the africans, especially while breeding, I would trade the africans in for a few other dither fish that don't get as big. The more each fish grows in there, the closer you get to it not working properly. Africans really require different water params anyways.
I thought about getting a tough and quick cichlid to replace the africans like a jewel. Would this work better or worse? I know that it would be usually frowned upon to have 3 angry cichlids in a 29g but would it be worth a shot? If they did get along well enough, could the cons and jewel be there for life or would there be a lack of space when the jewel got a little bigger? Thanks for the help. Keep it coming!