Pink Convict Crossroad

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purplecandle

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 29, 2010
355
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North Carolina
Hello, this is my first post here. Normally I am over at the pufferforum, but now I am having pink convict trouble and I did not want to go join another forum for advice so I cam here, I guess she is not technically a monster but boy is she mean..sorry this is long!

Ok, I am at a crossroads with one fish I have. A few months ago I bought what I was told was a blood parrot fry..it was as big as my fingernail, I wanted it for one of my freshwater community tanks..I bought it as a fry so I could insure that it was not dyed.

Skip ahead to few moths later.. she is as big as a quarter and fat! BUT obviously not a blood parrot..here are my clues
nice orange stomach patch (female)
stop and start movement (no blood parrot waddle)
nice pink cheeks
convict like fins
and she beats up anything in the tank with her..
After some investigation and an expert ID she is a pink convict.

I have moved her from tank to tank and she is queen B. She even had the nerve to steal a scallop from an 8in pleco.

I tried every combination of fish and tank..and finally had to put her in my 10 gallon snail breeding tank so I could decide what to do with her.

She ate all the snail eggs (I knew she would eat some, but not all in like 3 days!) and the snails would no longer climb the glass with her in the tank.

Even though she is small, I felt a 10 gallon would not do, so I cleared out a 20 gallon for her to be in by herself til I could know what to do. Do not worry 20 gallons sounds small, but this tank is custom and is a wide long tank..so she has a nice footprint..

Now I do not know what to do with her. She is intelligent and recognizes me and the food bowls-I feed a lot of fresh/frozen foods :)..Very fun interactive fish..But the tank is rather boring with just her in it..She is a lurker as opposed to swimming all around all day..just her personality

I found a nice pet store that wanted her..she is actually a nice specimen very healthy and fat..

But I am in love with her a bit...but I really wish she could be with other fish.

At least for "a while" I am sure she will be fine in this 20 gallon because of the nice footprint..but I am aware that she may need an upgrade..

So, I guess my q's are..

Is there any small fish that she could be with that would be ok in this size of tank? Anything as aggressive as her?

If I can find a fish that she could be ok with in the 20 gallon..I may consider upgrading her and the friend to a large tank..but I would need to know that she could get along with someone in the 20..I do not want to designate a 55 gallon to a little convict LOL

So since it is a 20 gallon..no giants..but at least something with bravado..or perhaps a slow grower-I do not want to risk stunting

She does not really beat anyone up ..nobody gets hurt..but she is a BULLY!!

I do not want to get rid of her...so any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
 
Any advice is appreciated...I know so little about cichlids and this fish I have..every time I try to do research I just run into information about other species..I am not even sure if this is a hybrid..or what..one website says one thing and then another website says something else...
 
Its no hybrid. Just a color morph of the convict cichlid. With an aggressive female fish your going to have a hard time finding a tank mate. Id suggest a bigger male pink or striped con. Chances are they will pair up. Anything else would get beat up, eaten, or kill her.
 
This sounds terrible, but if they mate or lay eggs will they eat their young? I am not so into breeding...

I will go look up a stripped convict, Thanks :)
 
cons are known to be extremely aggressive for their small size(compared to other new world cichlids), and are also known to be the easiest egglayer to breed so it's likely you will get eggs.

my pair took care of the fry and chased off an oscar twice their size ._.
 
Considering my pink convict chases off ramshorn snails for no reason I can totally see her taking down an Oscar..

I just read something..

are they diggers who prefer sand??

is there anyway to have two females instead of male female?
 
Females will act very strange towards each other i believe. They get fiesty.
They may eat the fry or eggs the first 2-3 times because it takes them a couple tries to get the those parenting thing right. You could have a whole schoal of cons in your 55 haha. Sand is the best substrate IMO.
Breeding is just an option. It can be a pain if you dont know what your doing, but its easy to find info online.
Another option is a school of maybe 8-12fish. Either some zebra danio, or barbs, or tetra. And hope that the convict doesnt kill them all. A good sized skool should dodge and weave and be fine. Get 10 neon tetra and see what happens...
 
LOL!!! I have moved her from tank to tank and tried her with cherry barbs, black skirt tetras, bettas, glofish (zebra's), cory cats, pristellas, a pleco, and even a big fat goldfish (yes I know not tank appropriate, but my husband bought it as a gift and i have to work up the courage to tell him it is a pond fish)

Virtually the most peaceful fish out there..she stole food, harassed and swam around saying, "you see that there, that is mine...and that..and that..and that.."

I guess I am out of luck...
 
She easily becomes the alpha in your tank.

So put her in with Jacks or Jewels and problem solved. Or put a few other cons in and a pecking order will be quickly established.
 
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