Convict Take Over...

[BRUTIKUS]

I originally got the convicts as food for my 3 RBP. Its been months now and they are multiplying and growing. Tried turning down the temp to 75. The P's might chip a tail fin or two but wont eat them. I've barely been feeding them, a pinch of pellets every few days. The pet store wont take any of them back. the stripes are taking over. should i cut my finger and put blood in the water?? what can i do to make the p's unleash the fury?? thanks for any replies..


90 gal
3 RBP
30+ convicts
1 pleco
1 small jag
1 small firemouth

 

[marvinbaker]

the lack of bloodshed is criminal

 

[Experiment397]

try catching the convicts and then cuting them up, then feed them to the piranha. freeze the convicts until you are ready to use them as food. if you beat the water with a stick it might excite the piranha before you put in the convicts. hope this helps.

 

[FishingOut]

Welcome to a world of problems with your mindset and tank stocking. 3 P's arnt going to get ferocious. Blood or sticks arnt going to work. You need to get the convicts out before they continue to inbreed and you get mutant inbred hybrid convicts capable of world domination. Just a thought.

 

[Foster]

I would say feed the p's less but they would probly grab ahold of anything but a convict, Murphys law in action.

I have sort of the same problem, I threw 2 females in the p's tank that were sick. They lived 3 weeks before I threw in a male. Got a pair and the couple beat the snot out of the lone female after their spawn hatched. Next weekend after I added the male I changed the light... Sunday everyone was there. Monday the lone female was gone, Tuesday the paired female dissapeared. Thursday I had no parents and a batch of orphans.

Dunno if the fish got irritated because of the light or they could finally see them well enough to eat them. I was working on moving the 20 gal to a diff stand this week so all those convict fry were getting moved to the big tank too... I asked my bro to help when we got home from town. Stupid fish laid eggs on the back wall while we were gone and ate the last 5 of their kids.

 

[ballinouttacntrol]

Feed less or continue on as you've been doing. With only 3 piranhas in your tank i'm sure the convicts add alot more activity to the tank....can't that be considered a good thing? I know i enjoy the movement and activity the guppies supply in my red belly tank

 

[jp80911]

got convicts???
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other than the rhom all other fish are convicts, from 2 or 3 breeding pairs.
with the decors you have in the tank and convicts being much smaller it'll be hard for just 3 rbps to catch them. try to remove the decors and reduce feeding to rbps (or stop completely for a few days, just keep an eye on them make sure there are not biting between rbps)
you can also add few more rbps in there to help with the hunt, with a 90g you can add few more in there that are similar size.

I had a bunch convicts in my old mix pygo shoal (11 of them in 180g) and they disappeared over time.

 

[Foster]

Feed less or continue on as you've been doing. With only 3 piranhas in your tank i'm sure the convicts add alot more activity to the tank....can't that be considered a good thing? I know i enjoy the movement and activity the guppies supply in my red belly tank

Yeah, movement alright... Makes it look like there are fleas in my rocks since they still have their baby colors

 

[ballinouttacntrol]

Yeah, movement alright... Makes it look like there are fleas in my rocks since they still have their baby colors

hahaha, well.....who put them there?

 

[BRUTIKUS]

Feed less or continue on as you've been doing. With only 3 piranhas in your tank i'm sure the convicts add alot more activity to the tank....can't that be considered a good thing? I know i enjoy the movement and activity the guppies supply in my red belly tank

yea the convicts are iller than i thought. 2 of the females wont back ever back down to the p's but they got their fins chipped up. i dont mind the convicts, its just the numbers they puttin out. i think im gonna take Experiment's advice and catch em and make convict fillets.