Con Breeding "Journal"

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
^^ I've heard that before, and I'm ready for that to happen, infact, I'd be thrilled if it did! :) I could learn alone with this one, but I prefer to atleast try to help other people learn about it with me. I wish someone would have done this when I first started looking at Cons, and I would have started alot earlier! :) The way I expect I'll be doing this is I'll only end up keeping 2, maybe 3, of each batch of fry, and I suspect sometimes none. I'll keep the best, and continue to linebreed with the ones I have kept. I have already talked to 3 LFS around my area, and all of them said that most of the Convicts they're selling are mixed with Honduras Red Points, and that they'd be interested in buying some of the pure-bred Convicts. So what I don't keep will be sold off, and the left overs will be fed to various fish, and culled. The price the LFS was offering was low, as it should be, but I'm more than happy to supply them for public selling. Maybe more people can try their hand at it, and not have to start with lesser-quality Cons as I have (atleast in the case of the male, Armani. Prada is goregeous and much darker in person).

After I get my desired results and learn enough about Cons I hope to move on to other Cichlids. Firemouths are next, I imagine, and although I'm not a big fan of Firemouths, after seeing Mr. Firemouth's amazing specimen, I feel I have to try to spawn them atleast once. If I get a bigger tank, I'd also love to try Jags, and possibly Oscars.

And really, I don't think it will be 3 weeks before they spawn. :D The female's tube is coming out more by the hour, and if I had to estimate with limited experience, I would suspect eggs are in the very near future. 72 hours at the very very most. The fry will be grown out in a 20long, and the ones I decide to keep will be placed with their respective mates into the 55, and the old pair will be moved to a 29gallon. Rinse, and repeat.

What's great is I live less than 20 minutes away from the Oyer residence. I'm very tempted to go to their house and take a look around, and ask them some questions, because they are one of the top breeders (in my opinion) in the united states, and possibly the world.
 
evilxyardxgnome;1001142; said:
Wow 55 gal is quite generous for your cons. I would maybe try and add another breeding pair and see what happens. Maybe not even cons maybe another Crypto species. Maybe Sajica or some HRPs.
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I figured why not give them the best? :D There was another 2 females in the tank (1m, 3f) but once the two paired up, they terrorized everything in the tank. If I can find Sajicas around my place, I would gladly add them, I think they're good fish. However, I'm afraid to add HRPs since I've heard alot of storys of cross-breeding, and I want to avoid that at all costs.
 
Ah, well there you go. X that one off the list. I think I'm just going to keep it Cons, in that case, and when this little project gets done get a Jag or EBJD and let it grow out in the 55.
 
Well today, lots and lots of cleaning, and displaying. The female flashes a spot, and the male gets to cleaning it. They picked the worse possible area to spawn, though. Back of the tank, under/behind a rock. Best picture I could get of it:
pictureuq2.jpg


They've made a large crater under and behind the rock, I'd say they're almost to the glass, through 2'' of sand. I'm not sure if fish have... well, wangs, but the male definately has a little thing poppin' out of his.. ahem, spot. The female's colors have exploded, and the male is flaring up at guppy fry. Apparently he assumes they're a threat.
 
I'm excited as well, but somewhat anxious. I've wanted to see the mating dance/spinning, and lip locking for quite some time, as well as see when the eggs are hatched. This is going to happen soon for my Convicts, however on Sunday morning, I will be leaving for Chicago, specifically, the Shedd Aquarium. :) I'm sure I will have a blast, but I'm afraid I'll miss seeing the parts I wanted to see most. However, I'm sure I wll not miss most of the action, and the most important part: Raising the 'elite' fry. I will only be gone until early Monday night, so I'll cross my fingers. Best case scenario is eggs are laid tonight (which looks likely), and are wrigglers before I leave. Either way, this is still amazingly fun and above that, rewarding. It's almost easy to forget that you are raising lives, however small they may be.
 
I suspect there's eggs this morning. Both of the cons stayed by their cave for the morning feeding, the males colors are darker, as are the females. There was some slight aggressiveness, with the male chasing the female, but that stopped. The female continues cleaning, and I suspect that's just due to her not wanting sand to fall where I suspect there is eggs. I put in two tiger barbs to kind of act as Kamakazee's in this experiment. When they approached the cave, they were chased off for about 45 seconds. One (usually Prada, the female) is guarding the entrance. Here's the best shot I could get of the whole situation. Prada is digging, and Armani seems to just be guarding and watching. I can't see eggs, but this behaviour is new and leads me to think there's some there.

caveiv1.jpg
 
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