Should i Breed Convicts or CherryShrimps As Feeders

[goldenballer]

i want some nice feeders to encourage my Midas cichlid pair to breed and also for My Green Terrors, will the convicts spine affect them in any way? or there spike fins?

i don't wanna lose my fish i spent over a 100 $ on them not includingg food tank etc

 

[zenyoungkoh]

convicts

 

[Zfishies]

See that you made a thread now haha IMO(in my opinion) i would be worryed about the convicts beating up there tank mates and i think cherryshrimps would have more protein.


But if you want to encourge them to breed, Convicts are they way to go. (by beating them up i ment by they would beat them up to protect there babbies)

 

[goldenballer]

they can't beat up my Midas !! i have them in a 20 G long tank they are 3.5'' each, would it be better if i had a RCS and Guppy combination? i think i might stick with the convicts, bcuz they grow faster
Thanks Alot man

 

[Zfishies]

am not that good with these kinds of fish am more of a catfish and coldwater fish guy lol am sure another member can help u out

 

[goldenballer]

oh cool i prefer warm water only cause i like cichlids mainly cause of my GT and midas, i think most of them are sleeping -.-

 

[ilovearowana]

yah you should and make sure to post up ur set ups.

 

[chris_zx2]

Did you say you have two Midas in a 20 long???
Or are you planning to breed in a 20 long?
And make sure you supplement their diet!

I was wondering actually if you feed the convicts crushed vegie flakes or plankton if that would transfer over to the Midas when they ate the convict?

 

[Dark Jester]

Did you say you have two Midas in a 20 long???
Or are you planning to breed in a 20 long?
And make sure you supplement their diet!

Yeah, if the Midas are 3.5" each right now in a 20L, they are about to outgrow that tank. Time to upgrade.

If you're using the 20L just for feeder breeding, you could do convicts or cherry shrimp. Either would work out fine.

For convicts you will have 100-300+ 1/2" fry available every couple months. If you want them bigger, you'll probably need a separate growout tank for the fry. The parents will eventually start killing them when they are ready to lay eggs again.

For cherry shrimp, just throw 20-40 adults in there and you'll probably have a couple hundred babies per month.

I was wondering actually if you feed the convicts crushed vegie flakes or plankton if that would transfer over to the Midas when they ate the convict?

Yep, you could 'gut load' them like that. Feed the fry a healthy batch of whatever you want the Midas to get just before you throw them in with the Midas.

See that you made a thread now haha IMO(in my opinion) i would be worryed about the convicts beating up there tank mates and i think cherryshrimps would have more protein.

Wouldn't work to breed convicts or shrimp in the same tank as the fish that you will be feeding. As you said, convicts could potentially kill the Midas protecting the fry, and shrimp would just be picked off before they even had a chance to reproduce. Feeders need their own separate tank to reproduce in.

i want some nice feeders to encourage my Midas cichlid pair to breed and also for My Green Terrors, will the convicts spine affect them in any way? or there spike fins?

i don't wanna lose my fish i spent over a 100 $ on them not includingg food tank etc

No worries on the spines hurting anything. I feed convict fry to my Jack Dempseys, Pictus Cats, and Firemouths. They gobble them up like popcorn. There's actually 4 convict fry in my main tank that have survived the 'purge' I carried out over the last week. More than 300 1/2" fry went in. The parents laid more eggs the day after I took the fry out too.

 

[Cybercyde]

Convicts will work out fine for the midas and terrors. They'll breed easily once you establish a pair.

I'd consider the rcs for several reasons.

- You'll only need one tank. With convicts you'd likely want to strip the fry and powerfeed them in a seperate barebottom tank to bring them up to size for feeding ala discus breeders. Otherwise you may run into slower growth and your pair might stop spawning.

- If you're successful starting a colony with 10-20 shrimp, you'd be deep into the 100+ range inside 2 months. Once you got a feel for the colony size, you'd be good to net them out at will so long as you didn't feed berried females and kept the tank shrimp only..

- They won't be overly substantial, but honestly convicts won't be either unless you crowd the living mess out of the 2nd 20 growing them out for a month or two. You'll also risk losing any fry you add in from the parents tank from their next spawn to keep them going. Since you're more or less looking for conditioning foods, anything that moves quickly and is nutritious works.

- Biggest winner in my mind is excess. If you decide you've got to many convicts you may have some issues even giving them away. If you have a lfs that'll trade in they'll likely be interested in the rcs, or simply sell on Craigslist for $1-2 each to locals...

Drawbacks to the shrimp over convicts are their max size, preference for a planted tank (Though even low light stem plants will do just fine), and being more fragile in terms of water quality.

Currently feeding convicts, but I've just found a local offering rcs that'd happily live in my planted tank.

Hopefully the wall of text helps.