Convict Breeding

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Azedenkae

Piranha
MFK Member
Apr 19, 2012
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Washington State, United States of America
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So firstly, yes I know convicts breed real easy, but still I am curious. :P So here goes.

Firstly, I have a female con that seem to have paired up with a male, and she has her breeding tube dropped and everything and hangs around him and chases the other female around. Now, I don't actually see anything underneath the male's belly - do males show signs down there as well when they've established a pair/ready to breed? Or is that really just females?

Now secondly, the other female in the tank... is she harming the chance of this two breeding (i.e. creating another choice for the male and hence makes him slower in terms of pairing up and breeding) or would she help (i.e. create a distraction of sorts for the pair to take their anger out on)?
 
1.only females drop tubes and have the breeding colors
2. No it will make breeding better because when he is done breeding with the first female he will go to the second female and it will be a cycle of 1st girl 2nd girl and so on


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mr fishy said:
1.only females drop tubes and have the breeding colors
2. No it will make breeding better because when he is done breeding with the first female he will go to the second female and it will be a cycle of 1st girl 2nd girl and so on


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Click to expand...

I wouldn't leave a second female in there. The chances that the male will cycle between females is low. I'm pretty sure he'd chase the other female and kill her. I know this because mine tried to when I had a 3 female to 1 male ratio. When my male paired with his female and they laid eggs, the other two females were chased around and beaten. If you don't mind the female dying somewhere along the way, then you can leave it in to strengthen the pair bond. I had to take mine out. Now the convicts supply me with feeders every 3-4 weeks.
 
HighBackRTG said:
I wouldn't leave a second female in there. The chances that the male will cycle between females is low. I'm pretty sure he'd chase the other female and kill her. I know this because mine tried to when I had a 3 female to 1 male ratio. When my male paired with his female and they laid eggs, the other two females were chased around and beaten. If you don't mind the female dying somewhere along the way, then you can leave it in to strengthen the pair bond. I had to take mine out. Now the convicts supply me with feeders every 3-4 weeks.
Click to expand...

Once the male bonds with one of them,
Both he and the one he chooses,
Will chase the others.

Spike
 
I wouldnt leave the other female there. Chances of the male spawning with the other female are slim. I've had it happened to me. The male spawned with two females and the other female ended up dead. The male probably got confused and killed the other female.

If you have a big enough tank you can get another male. But make sure you can handle the fry. I have 2 pairs of calico cons that spawn alternately. Im still taking care of the 1st batch from both pairs(2-3 weeks apart) and the older pair has spawned again and my 2nd pair looks like theyre gonna spawn in a few days.


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Azedenkae said:
I dont't mind the female dying, but I get what you guys are saying. Thanks guys. :P

Also yeah I heard certain males show their genitalia or something? Hence why I wondered if I should see something down there for them as well. xD Is all.
Click to expand...

Mine never showed their tubes. The night before I went to sleep, I just fed some frozen blood worms and the next day at 8 AM, they were already guarding eggs. They probably spawned in the wee hours of the morning. These guys breed really easily, you don't really have that much too worry about. As long as the male isn't chasing/killing the female or vice versa, you're good to go.
 
Over the past two days the pair's been heavily redecorating the tank (i.e. digging a large number of pits). 'Til this morning I still saw the female convict digging.

However, I came home just now to find the female being rather skittish, for some odd reason. She seemed to be a bit scared of the male, and the male does seem to be chasing her more now, but not really that aggressively. The female's breeding tube seems to also be a lot bigger today.

Any ideas? Did the pair kinda break up? Is the male tired of waiting? Are they getting really close to spawning?
 
When the breeding tube gets bigger that means she's gonna lay eggs real soon. I've never had that happen to me. My 2nd pair just spawned yesterday and the female wasn't skittish. She even bit me when I put my hand inside. Sometimes pairs do break it just depends on the fish.

Do u have any other fish in there? I would suggest put some dithers. My convicts never killed anything in the tank they're in. I've had my two pairs in the same tank ever since I had them and they're with some tetras, a pair of platys and some juvie hrps. Each pair spawned twice already and I haven't had any deaths.


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