Sexing convicts for breeding (help an eager noobie)

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Mystus Redtail

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2007
2,154
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Fishing in Wisconsin
Hi, I'm a noobie to cichlids and I'm hoping to take a crack at breeding convicts, both because of my growing interest in cichlids and for future breeding experience.

My first question in getting started is the ultimate stupid question. Which are the males and which are the females. Unfortunately, my lfs guy knows less than me. What he has there for con's are light green with dark green stripes, what the offspring look like are of little concern to me since its all about principle at this point. Anyway, there are ones that are light green with dark green stripes and ones that look almost identical, but they have orange on their sides a little bit. The fish guy thinks that that is the way to tell them apart, but I want to know for sure before buying two males or two females inadvertently.

Your help is greatly appreciated. I know there are a lot of people that are pretty advanced with cichlids and breeding of them and I hope it's not too much trouble to help a beginner out.

Any other advice that I should know along the way would be greatly appreciated as well.

The tank is a 20, I haven't decided on substrate, but I'm thinking sand, probably play sand. I'm going to add a bunch of plants and caves. The filtration is just a whisper filter. The tank will be around 82F.
 
i know what you are going through with being a beginner because i was one not to long ago..a way to tell a male and a female is this. A female at two inches or so should have orange on the belly. A male might but not nearly as much. A females head is more round too. but that is hard to tell.. if you want convicts to breed.. it is the easiest thing.. get four of them..or even two..but they might pick on each other..but get one male and one female both about the same in size. GET A DITHER FISH. so they will pick on that instead of each other..another convicts would make a great dither fish..if you have any more questions or dont get some of the stuff i have told you... private message me..your welcome
 
well i heard that the red on the female stomach is not the best way to sex, but in my case my female has the redish/orangeish spots on her stomach and my male has longer/pointier dorsal fins.
but y not just get 5 or 6 to get a pair:headbang2
these are very interesting cichlids with the little man complex i have mine in with a 6-7"female festea pr jags6-7" and there holding there own actually when they spawn they own half the tank.:ROFL:
 
but if you get six of them. that will be too many for a twenty gallon. because i got a twenty gallon and i had a 4 inch red devil and 2 spawning convicts and two jack dempseys. they killed a jack dempsey and beat the other one up.. the red devil was fine..but it is too small of a tank. grey goose what color was your female festae when you first got her.. mine is dark red.
 
Sexing cons is very easy, female will have orange on her side, even if small the orange will be present. A 20 gallon is a little small, but is doable, get a divider if you don't have another tank to move one of them to. Provide as much hiding spots as you can for the female, this will help her with the males aggression. If she gets to beat up though you will need to seperate them.

grey'goose;1018493; said:
well to get my pr i got 3 and the 2 pr'd off and killed the other one
here's a pix of festea
Click to expand...

nice fish, but what does it have to do with sexing cons?
 
the pic grey goose post isnt convicts there festeas. ok convicts:
males: no orange, humpier head, bigger body and bolder stripes.
females: orange on stumach, smaller.

thats all i can think of
 
yeh female is smaller in my dads tank its also got yellowy orange on it, the male doesnt.
 
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