I know they don't get much respect but these guys were my very first cichlids and I had a male reach 5 inches and he even had a kok (wish I had pics but this was years ago) so I would like you guys to post pics of your large (or really any size) convicts teall me what you like or dislike about them.
Monaster Convicts...
- Thread starter Boomer1224
- Start date
I had a really huge convict with a kok back in the 90's (also no pics). That I traded to a lfs, It was the most awesome convict I owned or saw.
Common as muck but still my favourites. They will always be the go to choice if I could only keep one species. very few species are quite so rewarding and to their detriment forgiving. There's something endearing about a pair 4-5" defending their brood against 8" nics and a 14" male 9" female dovii pair. great stocking which worked well for me.
A large male convict is an impressive fish. I had this guy for 15 years, my first cichlid. He measured 7" TL.
I have a decent size male in one of my tanks. He has half his mouth missing from another convict when he was little. My wife calls him our "special needs fish" lol
Convicts are one of my favorites for sure. I have had a few in the 5-6" range. Here is the last one I had, about 5.5" male HRP
Very nice HRP.
My last female died a few weeks ago
She was 10. She was the offspring of one of the 3 breeding pairs I had.
I have been reading about convicts lately. Was thinking of doing a single male in a 20gal. So Thursday went over to The Wet Spot, over on the left side off The store is they big tanks with bigger fish. One of the tanks had a colony of convicts in it an a couple misc med size 6in or so Oscars and Dempsey's a Mayan cichlid. So I sat there and watched the colony for a bit.
Never having convicts myself, been reading that all you need to get them to breed is one male one female, add water.
So I bought a pair that I picked out after watching the colony for a bit. The male was the biggest one there, he had the inside of a castle as his turf and was defending it against all the other fish in the tank.
I know not a monster cichlid at whole 2.5in
The female had the best set of fins with little trailers starting to form. She also has both yellow and blue in get fins looks so cool. She is about 1/2 his size.
Within minutes they started doing the cichlid mating dance, chasing each other around and all that.
It took all of three days before they started to lay eggs inside of thier little house there
Never having convicts myself, been reading that all you need to get them to breed is one male one female, add water.
So I bought a pair that I picked out after watching the colony for a bit. The male was the biggest one there, he had the inside of a castle as his turf and was defending it against all the other fish in the tank.
I know not a monster cichlid at whole 2.5in
The female had the best set of fins with little trailers starting to form. She also has both yellow and blue in get fins looks so cool. She is about 1/2 his size.
Within minutes they started doing the cichlid mating dance, chasing each other around and all that.
It took all of three days before they started to lay eggs inside of thier little house there
Good story about convict hardiness. I know someone who drove from Philadelphia to San Diego with a convict in a bucket. She couldn't part with the fish, so took him with her. He made it just fine, and she had him for a long time after.