Breeding convicts

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
M

Moloch

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 8, 2010
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Raleigh, NC
Can it be done (with happy healthy fish) in a 24x12 20gallon tank with a magnum HOT canister?

Before too long I'll be moving my bichirs and dempsey into my 65 gallon which will leave a single rubber-lip pleco in the 20. Would the convicts be likely to kill the pleco? Will they outgrow the tank?

I think they'd be pretty cool fish to have anyways, and the added bonus of raising a bunch of fry to feed to my bichirs and dempsey/whatever other cichlids I end up with would be pretty nice:popcorn:

Its either that or a guppy-sized community of tropical fish.
 
Westie;4491025; said:
Breeding convicts is a no brainer. (as long as you have a male/female)
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Yeah I realize that its really easy to do. I'm more concerned with the size of the tank and if they'll have a conflict with the pleco.
 
smpage;4491037; said:
should be fine for a while. eventually you may need to upgrade though.
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Thats the problem....I probably won't be able to upgrade for a very very long time.


...probably.

And I JUST noticed the 'breeding' sub-forum, I don't know how I've missed it until now.

Sorry for the misplaced thread:banhim:
 
Plecos arent a good mix with eggs. You could wake up the next day and all your eggs eaten. Of course there will be issues with the pleco and convicts during breeding/egg laying/guarding eggs/fry if the pleco gets too close. The pleco can be killed. Personally I would not keep a pleco in there. You could add some dithers like danios though.
 
They will probably conflict with the Pleco. He's armored, but they can still do some damage. They aren't going to like anyone near their nest site. I'd worry about the Pleco stealing some eggs at night too, they don't just eat algae. :)

I have my 2 cons alone in a 20 Long and they are doing great. Female is 2.5" and Male is around 3". Currently guarding their 2nd batch of fry.
 
Ok. This pleco has been a pain since the day my wife picked it out:p

I can't move it to the 65 because I don't want it to stay with my bichirs and end up killing them. But if I want to breed convicts now I won't be able to :\ I could take the heartless route and just add the convicts and wait for the thing to get killed and act surprised, but thats just not really how I like to do things. I could take it back to a store, but I don't know that my wife will let that happen easily.

I dunno, at least I know the convict breeder idea will work with that setup. You said I could add dithers though? I thought the convicts would pretty much tear up anything you put with them. I won't have a separate tank for the fry, but I've also heard that convicts raise their fry...which imply to me that I should keep them in the same tank?



Is this even really a good idea? If I could make the convicts a staple food source that'd be awesome, but I can't see them really breeding fast enough, so the 65 (i think) would just get a batch of young convicts every month or two? Something along those lines. As long as I'm feeding them healthy foods and taking good care of both tanks, this shouldn't be a very unhealthy or dangerous thing as far as feeding my other fish right?

I dunno...what do you guys think?
 
Would probably need a few convict pairs going to maintain them as a staple feeder source. You could just run the one pair though and use them as treat feeders.

If you take the fry from the parents after a week or two, you should get a new batch each month. They will lay eggs again about 2 weeks after the fry are gone, whenever you remove them. It takes a month or more for them to get to a good feeder size. My first batch were just over 1/2" after 3 weeks or so when I fed them (worked for me cause my other cichlids are still small). A separate growout tank would be a good idea if you need them bigger than that.
 
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