Convict breeding

[TheOscarFishKing]

Hello I want to start breeding convicts as a food source for my oscars. Now I also want to have a separate tank for another breeding pair that I can give to my local fish store or just sell. I would like to cross breed a regular convict and a pink convict is there any way that I can make it so tat those two colors pair up and if you have any advice on breeding them I will be happy to hear it all. Thank you in advance

 

[Yulli]

Most people say convicts breed like bunnies, stick them in a tank and let them have at it.

 

[convict242]

just put a male and a female in a tank. make sure the female has a hiding spot, where the male cant bully her, and they will be fine and breed. D

 

[ichthyogeek]

Well I hope your oscar is hungry, because convicts produce A LOT. Here's what I'd do:
Stick the breeding pair in a 20 or 29 gallon, make sure that one of the fish has longer fins than the other, as that's the only way I could ever tell the male from the female. They love spawning vertically, horizontally, etc. so if you put a piece of slate or a large pvc pipe in there, they'll breed on it. Run two sponge filters and do water changes, feeding twice or thrice a day. They'll spawn, and once the fry look more like fish and less like larvae, pull them out into a growout tank of about 40 gallons. The parents will probably spawn a week later...rinse, and repeat. Oh, and make sure to keep up on water changes, bare bottom tanks are your friend here.

I accidentally spawned a pair, and they never stopped breeding. Ever. With a super deep gravel bed, I'd end up needing to do weekly 90% water changes to get all the gunk out of the water...hence why you should get sponge filters, and use a bare bottom tank.

 

[robmcd]

Find a male, then find a female, then add water.

 

[Yulli]

Well I hope your oscar is hungry, because convicts produce A LOT. Here's what I'd do:
Stick the breeding pair in a 20 or 29 gallon, make sure that one of the fish has longer fins than the other, as that's the only way I could ever tell the male from the female. They love spawning vertically, horizontally, etc. so if you put a piece of slate or a large pvc pipe in there, they'll breed on it. Run two sponge filters and do water changes, feeding twice or thrice a day. They'll spawn, and once the fry look more like fish and less like larvae, pull them out into a growout tank of about 40 gallons. The parents will probably spawn a week later...rinse, and repeat. Oh, and make sure to keep up on water changes, bare bottom tanks are your friend here.

I accidentally spawned a pair, and they never stopped breeding. Ever. With a super deep gravel bed, I'd end up needing to do weekly 90% water changes to get all the gunk out of the water...hence why you should get sponge filters, and use a bare bottom tank.

who doesn't like spawning vertically and horizontally

 

[GamerChick5567]

Cons are pretty easy to breed as feeders. Better than guppies even. Just have a breeder box or fry tank like mentioned above. Make sure you use them before they really get the dorsal spines in though, wouldn't want the oscar to choke. Feed them a good healthy diet in the higher end of the temperature range (like 80-84) and they will grow fast. Mine have doubled in size with this heatwave we've been having here, my tank is uninsulated on the patio.

Also the most reliable way to sex them IMO is the belly colors. The female's will turn bright orange when she gets ready to breed. The male will get some blue on the fins too and his stripes will contrast more but he will not have orange. He might also get a nuchal hump, mine does but I think he is really old. They can breed quite early, at around 1.5-2". Had a real tiny female last year and it was hilarious when she laid like 20 eggs out of nowhere.

Also to get marbled cons, you will need to find some that have the gene, which is recessive like the pink. My pink female has a few little black marks, very tiny, but no luck yet. Probably because my male is normal. Was real disappointed with this last batch. I think the pink babies end up getting eaten fast as well.

Here is a link I saved about that, it's a good read:
https://gregthecrazyfishguy.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/convict-cichlid-marble-genes/

 

[Gourami Swami]

Stick the breeding pair in a 20 or 29 gallon, make sure that one of the fish has longer fins than the other, as that's the only way I could ever tell the male from the female.
...pull them out into a growout tank of about 40 gallons. The parents will probably spawn a week later...rinse, and repeat.

While most of the information in your post is useful, I would say that convicts are very easy to sex, not from fin length but from coloration. Females will have an orange belly and more pronounced blue/yellow in fins and body.
Also, a 40 breeder will not be a good tank to raise small fry in. You want to put them in a 5 gallon or something like that until they are around an inch long. They will be lost in the 40 breeder, it will be harder for them to find food, and the larger filters and pumps required in a large tank may suck fry in.
When it comes down to it, breeding convicts is as simple as adding water.
Good luck! (although you probably won't need much)

 

[ichthyogeek]

While most of the information in your post is useful, I would say that convicts are very easy to sex, not from fin length but from coloration. Females will have an orange belly and more pronounced blue/yellow in fins and body.
Also, a 40 breeder will not be a good tank to raise small fry in. You want to put them in a 5 gallon or something like that until they are around an inch long. They will be lost in the 40 breeder, it will be harder for them to find food, and the larger filters and pumps required in a large tank may suck fry in.
When it comes down to it, breeding convicts is as simple as adding water.
Good luck! (although you probably won't need much)

Depending on where you get your convicts from (I got mine from Petsmart), they might be lacking in color, especially when you're buying them from overcrowded tanks, but duly noted regardless.
Convicts, as you know, have massive spawns. You pull out the brood after they start to look more like actual fish (around the quarter inch mark), and put them into the 40 gallon tank, where they will most assuredly not get lost. If "getting lost" is an issue, then you put them in a tank that's only partially filled, or partition off part of the tank. A 5 gallon is by no means big enough for a giant spawn of 30+ fish, regardless of size, and can cause stunting. Additionally, given that in this case the brood's destined for food, you want to maximize growth in as minimal time possible, by heating the tank, providing large amounts of food, and keeping water quality high. You can't achieve the last of these if all 30+ fish are in a 5 gallon, even if you're doing a constant water change. I say 40 B not because I don't believe that the fish are big enough, but because the large volume of water will help to reduce waste, helping to maximize growth. Additionally, (and I say this because my post didn't clarify that), running a sponge filter or two, or a sponge prefilter on a HOB in the 40B wouldn't harm the fry.

 

[Gourami Swami]

I am talking about small freeswimming fry, at close to the 1" mark you are right on all accounts and the 40 will be fine. But putting new fry in a 5g tank until they are large enough for a big tank will not stunt them or slow their growth. It will make it easier to keep track of them.