How fast do convicts grow?

[Kioka]

Um...

This... is going to be weird. My buddy and I might start keeping African Vine Snake (Philothamnus sp.) which are notorious lizard, frog and fish eaters. Now, from reading the forums on the Internet, it seem like livebearers are not big enough and goldfish don't often come in proper sizes Now, apparently a guy in Sweden keeps them and feed them perch. Now I have no idea what he means by perch, as in a local translation or slang or the European Perch. Even if he uses the European perch or bigger, I am not even sure what size he uses. Apparently they don't mind spiny fishes.

So I ask you... any idea of good feeder fish that can get to be a good size quickly and reproduce like mad? I am thinking convicts or one of the other cichlids...

 

[Oni Angel-Hannya]

Youll need a like 10 pairs of them to even rely on them as food.

 

[uberunce]

i only had my first batch for a month now and theyre about 3/4inch long so far.
if you want a steady flow of them you'd need to have a few tanks and cycle through the batches. ie batch #1 in tank #1, a month later batch #2 in tank #2 and so on until you have a desired size in tank #1 to feed. (hope that made sense i read it a few times over and got lost inbetween)

 

[Tongue33]

Youll need a like 10 pairs of them to even rely on them as food.

That really depends on how often the snake eats... And how big it is.. Some snakes eat once a month... And then more when larger.. But allot of snakes still only eat 1-2 times a week... So one batch would last a while after it was large enough to start feeding.. until then the author could buy from the lfs what ever they need... And by then the cons will have had a few batches to grow and growing

Just my opinon.. And I really don't know much about the snake in question or snake in general .. I just know what two of my closest friend have had and have and feed

 

[Kioka]

10 pairs is still way better than paying $5 per anole or house gecko and trying to fill up 5-10 snakes.

Hurrah for trying to pioneer these guys into the reptile hobby... hope it works.

Alternatives can still be suggested.

 

[Alistriwen]

I dont know how much your snake eats but if you feed them well and they have a good sponge filter to feed off of in their downtime they grow pretty fast.

 

[Kioka]

I have no idea either... and I don't mind starting up multiple breeding tubs/tanks to experiment with different fish and downtimes.

 

[Alistriwen]

Rather than get a bunch of tubs Id get a big long tank and use tank dividers. You'll save money in the long run especially if youre using these for feeders. For example you could get a single 100 gallon and house 5 pairs. Youd need 2 heaters and filtration. With 5 seperate tubs youre looking at 5 heaters (less expensive ones but still) filtration for each and additional maintenance.

 

[Liam]

Rather than get a bunch of tubs Id get a big long tank and use tank dividers. You'll save money in the long run especially if youre using these for feeders. For example you could get a single 100 gallon and house 5 pairs. Youd need 2 heaters and filtration. With 5 seperate tubs youre looking at 5 heaters (less expensive ones but still) filtration for each and additional maintenance.

Plus a bigger power bill.

 

[Mystix212]

You are best to feed fish with soft rays rather then hard rays/spines which are found on convicts. If the snake was to always be fed dead convicts, then the dorsal and anal fins would not be erect thus cause no harm to the snake.