tetra phobic?

[djsaltynuts]

if the tetra are being skittish id make sure they arent nipping the cichlids. i think your best bet might be to add more tetra in the hopes the activity makes the cichlids more comfortable. both tiger barbs and columbian tetra would be pretty good at small eating fry that arent hiding as others have said. i think hachet fish make good dithers for breeding SA cichlids because of their upturned mouths.

 

[duanes]

Now hearing that there is also con in the tank, thats another rub.
If you want to actually keep Andinooacara fry, the con is a bad idea.
If I wanted to save fry, one of the first things I'd do, is get the con into another tank.
I used to breed many species of cichlids, and tried to keep a number of fry fry from each pair, so when that was my intention, the only fish I'd have in a breeder tank, was just the pair. Sometimes keeping another tank next to the breeder tank, so the pair could see the other cichlids (like a con) , helped to keep intra-pair aggression down to a minimum.
Beside eating the spawn, another cichlid in the breeding tank, can cause the pair to et its own eggs or fry.

 

[Thalassa]

Now hearing that there is also con in the tank, thats another rub.
If you want to actually keep Andinooacara fry, the con is a bad idea.
If I wanted to save fry, one of the first things I'd do, is get the con into another tank.
I used to breed many species of cichlids, and tried to keep a number of fry fry from each pair, so when that was my intention, the only fish I'd have in a breeder tank, was just the pair. Sometimes keeping another tank next to the breeder tank, so the pair could see the other cichlids (like a con) , helped to keep intra-pair aggression down to a minimum.
Beside eating the spawn, another cichlid in the breeding tank, can cause the pair to et its own eggs or fry.

Yeah I kinda got the tetra to keep fry down as well as being dither. The convict is that last of hundreds and hundreds of convicts I gave away. I had convict coming out of my ears and a stiff neck from catching fry. Even after moving my pair of convicts into a damp shoebox they still kept breeding

So I am 100% ok with all fry being eaten i just don't want my fish to get stressed or sick.

The one convict juvenile i kept was because it had really cool coloring maybe some ressesive gene, but he is still a little bastered and might need to give him away as well

 

[djsaltynuts]

Thanks guys, this is a lot of good information. I have been watching them closely today from more of a distance and noticed that the small juvenile convict is getting in the acara space a lot pushing them around and fin nipping this did not happen before the introduction of the tetra (or I did not notice). I am wondering if in addition to all the good points made above the introduction of the tetra have altered the behavior of the convict? or maybe the convict realizes they are ready to spawn and wants to eat fry. After their last spawn the baby convict got really fat and grew allot the acara seemed more hostile toward the convict.

guess unless this is putting to much stress on the acara it should be ok and eventually pass. If not I will probably remove the convict.

I really love convicts but they are always turn out to be such a pain in the ass.

if you keep aggressive cichlids together you have to expect them to test the hierarchy which would be my guess as to what he was doing . itd also be my guess that if its a spawning pair of cichlids they probably were pushing him back and as an aggressive fish he was probably trying to keep his territory and not get forced into an upper corner. i always throw my young convicts in with my pike who uses them as a chew toy and tosses them around by their head which they seem to do fine with. you could just toss the convict in a tub or bucket with a small amount of aeration until you have another tank available as im sure youre aware.