It finally happened! (video)

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Wulfonce;3163340; said:
Convicts are great parents. They go above and beyond to protect their fry and will defend them to the death. They will probably eat their babys under certain circumstances but that's not normally the case. perhaps in cases of deformity maybe? I really dont know.

perhaps someone with more knowledge could elaborate on this further.
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Convicts and other cichlids will defend their fry till death. It's rough in the wild and you can't be a wimp when your only chance to keep ur speceis going is these little fry. Extremely right there dawg!!!!!! :) It's been knwn that cichlids first batch of fry are sometimes eaten, they just don't know what their doing or the eggs will get fungus, so if they get eaten by parents it's normal.:)
 
Wulfonce;3163370; said:
Day 2 now and the mother cant seem to keep up with returning the wigglers to the cave. The father is finally helping and has taken a roll in keeping the fry in one area. He keeps watch over a crack in the rock that the fry keep swimming out of while the mother sticks to the cave entrance. I was watching them for a few hours yesterday and every time one would swim out the crack and father would snap it up, swim around to the other side of the rock and spit it out at the cave entrance. I cant see how many there are because shes hiding them so deep. I did manage to count approximately 30 that were wiggling around waiting for a pickup. :grinno:

They're fun to watch and I cant wait until they grow up. :nilly:
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It'll be real when their free-swimming. That's when it get's fun to see the parents watch them. The fry will run to cover from anything that scares them. Have fun, the first time raising fry is very very interesting
 
Here they are, 5 days later. They're free swimming now and feed on brine shrimp. The mother sadly died earlier today from an unknown cause so its up to the father to take care of these 100 or so babys. (good thing he has such a big mouth):ROFL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KbvtTNTJLY


Question: because the mother is gone now will the father continue to raise the fry in her absence? Wouldn't want these little guys to get eaten or anything like that.
 
How big is that male, he looks very nice (from the 3 seconds of seeing him) compared to most convicts in my opinion.

He should take complete care of them, his instincts in the wild would be to keep the line of convicts going. But then again, if fish get too stressed(from defending fry constantly) then he might eat them. Anything else in the tank, if not I wouldn't be worried. You saw how he was near the glass trying to defend the fry, i'm sure he will do fine.
 
packer43064;3172367; said:
How big is that male, he looks very nice (from the 3 seconds of seeing him) compared to most convicts in my opinion.

He should take complete care of them, his instincts in the wild would be to keep the line of convicts going. But then again, if fish get too stressed(from defending fry constantly) then he might eat them. Anything else in the tank, if not I wouldn't be worried. You saw how he was near the glass trying to defend the fry, i'm sure he will do fine.
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He's about 4-1/2" inches long from nose to end of tail.
 
my convicts let their fry live for 1 week them chomp them.... so i started taking them out and putting them in breeding traps...

i hope yours dont go nuts and eat the babies :D mine move hikari foodsticks thou :D even uncrushed they still can pick at the pellet
 
I once tried to tease my pair of parent convicts by dipping my hand and acting like i wanna catch the fry, to my surprise, they did try to nib my fingers. it hurt a little though... They are indeed very good protectors.
 
crowxviii;3178876; said:
I once tried to tease my pair of parent convicts by dipping my hand and acting like i wanna catch the fry, to my surprise, they did try to nib my fingers. it hurt a little though... They are indeed very good protectors.
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Funny you said that.

Just yesterday I was putting a filter bag over the filter intake so the fry don't get sucked up and out of nowhere the male swims at my hand full speed and knocks it into the glass. It surprised me and I instinctively yanked my hand out of the tank splashing water all over my face and shirt. I looked at the male and he was looking right back at me with this sly look in his eye seemingly mocking me. It made me chuckle and I felt foolish.


Lesson learned: A 4-1/2" con can build up a pretty good amount of force.
 
haha, da's great how u zoom out from so close. it kinda scared me when i saw the bigger of the couple, wut a size difference! it's almost like a 50 yrs old man marrying a 18 yrs old, or the other way around? LOL
 
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