cons in a 20 long?
- Thread starter meluvmeosky
- Start date
this is wat u do get egg crates and make a hole small enough for the female to get through but not big enough for the male and make lots of visual barriers for them so they dont always see each other until they are used to each other...
as they get to adulthood and their full grown size I don't think they'll be able to coexist in a 20 long. I agree that a 30 should be minimum to house a con pair for life. 
even 30 is tough. My male has killed 4 females in my 30. He gets waaaay to overly aggressive when there are young present.
A 20L has the same footprint as a 29g, and is the generally accepted minimum for a pair of cons. Just make sure there are a lot of hiding spots and your female should be fine. Keep a divider handy if not.
nomadofthehills;608326; said:
20 long is a common breeder set up in my opinion.. For smaller fish..THough thsi 30 LONG would be much better than even a 55 for that matter 
Sorry no pics it was deleted after it sold for 200.00
Sorry no pics it was deleted after it sold for 200.00
nomadofthehills;608326; said:
yes a 20L has the same footprint as a 29 and in most cases new world cichlid people (myself included) will tell you that hight usually isn't important. however there is also a minimum height and imo that is 17". any tank with any type of new world cichlid that will get 4" or larger should be kept in at least a 17" tall tank. why? when a pair spawn what generally happens is that the female will stay right down in the nest guarding the wrigglers/fry and the male will stay about 4-6" above the nest protecting the surrounding area. in a 12" tall tank the male doesn't have much room to patrol above the nest and I've seen this cause problems. I had a pair fight relentlessly because the male couldn't get far enough away from the nest and the female constantly bullied the male. it's also not uncommon for things to go the other way around and the male start bullying the female. the bottom line is that a breeding pair needs adequate space, both in footprint and height.
Tongue33;608353; said:
with this I agree. small fish (2.5-3" at most) or smaller will do fine in a 20L but convicts grow quite a bit larger than that. males can easily reach 5" and it's not uncommon for them to get even slightly larger and females can get to 3.5-4" if not even slightly larger than that. I can't imagine a 5" male con and even a 3.5" female con breeding and having adequate space to not kill each other in a 20L. if you put a divider in that size tank then you've got 2 fish with barely any room to move. a 30L (36" x 12" x 17"...sometimes called a 33 gallon) is a great size for a pair of cons to live through adulthood. the 20L will work for a few months but once the male gets to around 3" I just don't think a 20L is big enough.