Should I?

[Nabbig2]

I have a 10g with a male convict who doesn't want to breed, so I guess I will have to get rid of him.

I have never bred fish much, and I really would like to, and I'm excited to go get a new pair of small convicts and breed them. The problem is that I won't know what to do with the fry. I have a senegal bichir, maybe I could use those as feeders, but he could only eat so much.

Another option is breeding fancy guppies. I have nothing against guppies, but I just think that convicts would be more interesting. Your opinion would be appreciated.

 

[James B.]

Go with cons and what the bichir wont eat cull

 

[Mystus Redtail]

I had my con's for 6 months before they bred, it was a male and two females, the tank sprung a leak and when I switched them to a different shaped tank (20 tall to a 20 long) the male left the one female and paired with the other, turns out he's a deadbeat dad, cuz the female that got left sat and guarded one of the decorations for a couple weeks, then the fry showed up, there's only like 30 of them left, but she's a great mom, keeps the other fish away.
It may just take more time, or if you get a new pair it may work too. I've heard that they usually eat the first batch out of inexperience, but for mine that was not the case. Another thing, I'm sure that any poly could eat the fry as fast as they could make them, I wouldn't hesitate to feed con fry to any fish.

Good luck!

 

[Nabbig2]

I had my con's for 6 months before they bred, it was a male and two females, the tank sprung a leak and when I switched them to a different shaped tank (20 tall to a 20 long) the male left the one female and paired with the other, turns out he's a deadbeat dad, cuz the female that got left sat and guarded one of the decorations for a couple weeks, then the fry showed up, there's only like 30 of them left, but she's a great mom, keeps the other fish away.
It may just take more time, or if you get a new pair it may work too. I've heard that they usually eat the first batch out of inexperience, but for mine that was not the case. Another thing, I'm sure that any poly could eat the fry as fast as they could make them, I wouldn't hesitate to feed con fry to any fish.

Good luck!

Well, I now know that my male convicts is too big for a 10g, he's about 3 inches and has killed any female I put with him, so I think a smaller pair will do better.

How long could the fry live in the tank with the adults until it gets stuffed?

 

[Mystix212]

Apart from having a fridget male convict your birchir would be glad to eat any convicts you have. They cant go as fast that they wind up too big as food. You can feed some cons at a small 1/4" size, and by the time you've fed say, 5 a week, out of a brood of 200, they'd easily be .75".

Screw the guppies.

 

[Mystus Redtail]

I keep getting told that I need to remove the fry so that the other cons and the mom don't eat them, but I'm not going to. Like I said, she's a great mom, when one strays too far from where she wants them she sucks it in her mouth moves it back and spits it out. I'm breeding them for feeders too, so I'm not too concerned about their wellbeing, and this is also my first experience with breeding, but its totally worth it to watch the whole thing happen.