Con Info

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20 gal is decent for a pair, but a 30 would be better, but not necessary. I'd suggest no tankmates either in the 20 gal. Theyre smaller cichlids that reach about 4-6 inch, the male being the larger one. Females have a orange/red belly and it gets a brick red color when they are gonna mate. They will eat pellets, bloodworms and all types of foods, guppies too.


For filtration on a 20 gal you dont need to go overboard. Maybe a Penguin/marinland 350 would be good. You can even go less than that too. Make sure to do weekly water changes. Thats pretty much it.
 
alleykat0498;2313949; said:
If you want a pair I suggest a 29-55 gallon tank. After all the bigger the tank=less work. Find a pet store with some convict grow outs less than an inch and get like 10 of them, depending on tank size as soon as 1 or 2 pairs form return the rest. (give em away or whatever) They really are fascinating when they go through the motions of preparing a "nest" and the parenting aspect. As far as population control my oscars and my juvenile arowana do a pretty good job of keeping that in check... After all it seems like your just coming into this MONSTER lifestyle and all those babies make an excuse for more and bigger tanks:naughty: Atleast thats the excuse that worked with my wife.
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I like the idea of bigger and more tanks so sounds like good excuse. I read their mating and the way they look after their new born is pretty cool. I into that Guess I'll need to buy some fish to cull the herd as well then that is really too bad however will I get on with more fish lol. Any other ways people allieviate themselves of extra little guys?
 
polarbear;2314013; said:
I like the idea of bigger and more tanks so sounds like good excuse. I read their mating and the way they look after their new born is pretty cool. I into that Guess I'll need to buy some fish to cull the herd as well then that is really too bad however will I get on with more fish lol. Any other ways people allieviate themselves of extra little guys?
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Now your making some smart decisions about becoming a serious hobbiest. I have a lfs that will take them but I usually just trade them for food for my other fish. They are so abundant in the hobby that they really dont have much value unless close to full grown. I often will set up a seperate tank for my male so that they hold off on breeding for a while until I start to run low on feeders. Which seeing as how they have up to 300 at a time can take a while.
 
my cons eat anything.. nls, shrimp pellets, live shrimp, blood worms, flakes whatever.. the nls reeeally makes their colors stand out. seems like they change day to day, especially the females. theyre black and white striped with red bellies and a blue face. and sometimes their white stripes have a green tint to it. NEATO=)
also in my opinion the females are more active than the males.. and more aggressive.
 
You could also just leave the babies in, in which they will be killed and/or eaten. This is because the male will want to breed again and with babies around it kinda screws up his breeding chances. Although, this isnt always true.

Theyre pretty cool fish and pretty easy. The probalem is, they breed alot so you must have a back up plan for that.
 
With cons you can leave the fry with the parents as they are very good parents. A 20 is too small for a pair. Get the largest tank you can afford and just a few cons. Stay away from the pink cons as they are very aggressive.

Having raised several brood of zebra and pink cons, I will tell you they are fun to watch parenting the fry.They will eat most anything including plants. Use small gravel as they like to dig in it and makes nests.
 
Cons are the rabbits of the fish world. For those that I can't get rid of I try to feed to my Oscars.
 
get a 30 gallon tank and buy a male and female when they have babies just give them away as feeders or try and trade them in at a local fish store
 
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