Male or female convict cichlid? And how long to breed?

[Claudia Calvi]

I am super excited about having convicts again, but a bit rusty on knowledge. This one is about 3 cm. Is it a female? Is she old enough to breed. Does a male for her have to be larger than that? Thank you for your advice
See attached.

 

[Gourami Swami]

that is a female, and she is ready to breed. You can see her tube, looks ready to lay eggs. A male around that size should be ready to breed as well, they mature at a pretty small size.

 

[KeepsWaterAndSomeFish]

Just as Gourami said she looks desperate to lay . I would personally find a male slightly larger than her. It does tend to help with mate selection and the forming of pairs but with convicts generally a male plus female combo of any size, age or variety will yield rapid results. Its not uncommon for them to spawn in as little as two to three days after adding a male. Depending on conditioning of course.

 

[smitty03281964]

She looks ready, ready.

 

[wynnyelle]

in my experience once you get at least one male and female convict together in a tank...it will be harder to prevent them from breeding than to get them to breed...lol..if u are not careful they will overpopulate a tank within a few months or less

 

[Claudia Calvi]

that is a female, and she is ready to breed. You can see her tube, looks ready to lay eggs. A male around that size should be ready to breed as well, they mature at a pretty small size.

 

[Claudia Calvi]

that is a female, and she is ready to breed. You can see her tube, looks ready to lay eggs. A male around that size should be ready to breed as well, they mature at a pretty small size.

She is mostly hanging around and being friendly with the dark striped orange convict , which is a female right? No tango dancing though.. so, given what you say other less colourful convicts that I have in there, that are paler grey must be too young for her. So I might get a larger male hopefully tomorrow from petwave there is none to find in Sydney !

 

[Gourami Swami]

nice looking fish, yes that orange-bellied black and white one is a female. Males have 0 orange coloration on the belly, so find one with not even a touch of orange and should be good to go.