CONVICTS how to breed them. =)

[Scuba_Kid]

Hey everyone, i am going to have a 40 gallon tank with nothing in because im giving away my oscar and putting my huge pleco in my 180. So im thinking about breeding convicts or guppies since iv'e heard there fairly easy to breed. I have a couple of questions though since this would be my first time breeding anything. Is my tank big enough to breed either of these species? How big (old) do they have to be to breed? Out of the two species which produce more fry? How long does it take for them to reach an inch or so and what should i feed the babies. I know it's alot of questions but im very new to this so ill reasearch alot but i would also like to hear your setup and what all i would need. Btw i would be feeding them to my arowana and jack dempsey. Thanks for all your help and time!

 

[Juxtaroberto]

If you're planning to feed an arowana, I'd go with convicts, simply because of the amount of guppies it would take to even dent a large arowana's appetite. Honestly, both of those species are really easy to breed. Just put them together and let them do their thing.

The only thing I hate about convicts is that often, they evade predation and grow up in the tank where they were meant to be food. Baby guppies are hard to feed due to their size, and some guppies will eat their young as they give birth. Good thing about cichlids is that they have strong parental instincts.

I always recommend people not to even feed live fish, even if home bred, for one main reason: only 10% of energy moves on to the next trophic level. Meaning, you'd have to feed your convicts 10 times the amount of prepared food, than if you just fed that food directly to your arowana or jack dempsey.

 

[gizmo37m]

I've tried the raising convicts to resale lol nobody wants em . So next was try and feed em to my oscar's ...well now i have convicts having fry in with the oscars and they could care less . Anyone want some convicts ? I'm still trying to get rid of several lol

 

[Industrial]

Breed an expensive guppy, sell them to the store when full grown, and you can get like 10 feeder guppies per fancy guppy (at least).

Convicts grow very slowly. It took a few months before mine were large enough to feed to a 5 and 6" fish. And I was also feeding them live baby brine shrimp four times a week along with regular feedings.

Guppies also take about six months to reach full size.

 

[skillzizzo]

Some one needs to make a sticky on this. All the time there are these threads on breeding convicts. Just my two cents

 

[moodig]

Convicts are super easy to breed you just have to buy a male and a female. They will breed about every month. My friend's convicts bred when they were around 3 in. long and they produce a lot of fry. You could feed them brine shrimp or finely crushed flake

 

[ahfu25]

Convicts are super easy to breed you just have to buy a male and a female. They will breed about every month. My friend's convicts bred when they were around 3 in. long and they produce a lot of fry. You could feed them brine shrimp or finely crushed flake

Yup!..I remember reading here "you can throw 2 convicts in a puddle of rain water and they'll breed"....LMAO

 

[rideit6578]

..you can breed convicts in the toilet bowl. the male babies will grow faster than the females. if you're breeding for food its a good choice because you get a lot of fry with each batch of fry, its what I do. the other cool thing is you get to watch the babies follow the parents around the tank. just make sure you don't scare them whit the babies because they'll eat them.