If I remember it takes a while before they reach the 2" mark. Maybe a couple of months 7-8. I think, don't quote me on this. I would start the con tank first and grow them out then get the fish you want to feed them to. I did this years ago to feed my jacks and jags. My friend told me to set up 2 tanks 1 for the breeding pairs and the other for the grow out tank. So I had like 4 tanks going at one time. Kinda lost interest in using my money to feed the cons just to feed to other fish so I just focused on cons. I actually made more money raising cons then growing jacks and jags. Ended up with more than 20 generations of cons before I stopped for 2 years. It all started with 4 pairs
Convicts as food
- Thread starter Dovii_22
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I would go with a 55g and put 6 cons in there and try to get at least 2 pair then i would keep a 29 gallon set-up for the fry to grow-out in... But in the long run would it be worth it thats the question you must ask yourself...........
Convicts are not very fast growers. It would take quite a few at around 2" to satisfy larger cichlids. IMO convicts are not very good staple food source. They just dont grow quickly enough. You'd be better of breeding guppies.
You'll need a few tanks for fry. It does take a few months to get them big. as you kill off the bigger ones you can graduate the smaller fry to to next tank size up and drop your fresh meat aka newborns in the smaller tank. Power feeding babies to get them big enough to eat is costly too (mysis shrimp and quality flakes). Most of all it takes time to get the fry big enough for dovii to even look twice at for a good meal. It's cheaper to buy feeders but none of the risk. My lfs medicates even their feeders so I've never had problems either way. G/l happy fish growing.
