Trading in some Cons at LFS....

[bmxer4ever]

Just about to take 6 one year old Cons to my LFS and see what I'll get for them. They usually give me half of retail. I had ten left from a spawn from last year and four of them have paired off and are laying eggs - new spawn this morning! Yeah! - so the spare 6 had to go. Hopefully get enough to buy a new heater for my 100 gallon......
Watch this space!
Sorry - no pics - girlfriend is away with my camera.

 

[bmxer4ever]

Good LFS trip today even if they only gave me £8 ($16) store credit - not as much as I got last time, but I suppose it's better than nothing. Kind of sucks when you spend a year rearing a fish and you get so little return, but I guess that's not the right way to look at it. I wasn't breeding for profit, I was just happy to be able to raise them. I'm left with 2 breeding pairs, one pair has spawned a couple of times, but I think they ate the eggs, and the other pair is sittin on a nice clutch right now.
I think it's just a nice achievement to be able to breed them, even if they are just Convicts.

As regards the LFS trip, I hit 3 of them today - some cool fish. Topaz puffers, reticulated rays, Queen Arabesque pleco, a pair of Aequidens cichlids - don't know the species, looked like pic below - and some nice big Geophagus in one of them, big RTC and a dolphin shark in another.
All I picked up was a really nice male Congo tetra (lots of colour and nice fins) for my NEXT breeding project. Considering that they are selling at £6.95 ($14) a piece in most stores right now, that could be a nice little earner! Imagine rearing 100 of those....
I've got 2 males and 4 females, so just need to get another couple of males and clear out my 4 foot tank for them and we're off!
Let you know how the Cons get on, and I'll post a new breeding thread when I kick off with the Congos.....

 

[Mystix212]

I think it's just a nice achievement to be able to breed them, even if they are just Convicts.

I squish all of my eggs. Then I tip them into the outflow and the other fish eat them. Good riddance. 5 spawns of cons for me is plenty. Nuff said.

 

[Darky]

omigosh!

 

[bigspizz]

I squish all of my eggs. Then I tip them into the outflow and the other fish eat them. Good riddance. 5 spawns of cons for me is plenty. Nuff said.

I breed cons and have for the last 15 years. If you don't want a pair to spawn, do not have a pair. To "squish" the eggs is un needed stress on fish who do not deserve to be treated like doo doo.....

 

[bmxer4ever]

I squish all of my eggs. Then I tip them into the outflow and the other fish eat them. Good riddance. 5 spawns of cons for me is plenty. Nuff said.

Mystix, you are a BAD BOY.......!
I love it when there are new babies in my tanks, regardless of the species. It's been a year since I last had breeding Cons - the 2 pairs I have now are growouts from that last spawning, all the adults from then were traded in.
I'm looking forward to seeing some wrigglers soon - the eggs havn't quite hatched yet and there's less of them, but I assume that's just mum and dad weeding out the dead/fungussed ones.
Hope they don't eat them all!
They've dug out a pit in the sand for the fry, so fingers crossed.
In my opinion, helping Cons to breed and raise their fry is good practice for breeding other fish, so it's a worthwhile exercise.

 

[bmxer4ever]

Eggs hatched over the last few hours, think there was around 50......got a bunch of wrigglers now!
Parents seem to be looking after them well.
Looking forward to free swimming fry.
Should be another 2 days? Or is it sooner?

Sorry, on pics as the clay pot they spawned in is behind a slab of sandstone in the tank (to give them privacy - it worked!)- no way of gettin a camera in there.

 

[sandtiger]

I get money for my convict fry as well. Last year they were giving me $2.00 eatch, this year $1.00. I also sell my brichardi fry and am hoping my keyholes and bushynoses will produce something. I'm like BMKer, I just like having the fry around and watching the parents rear them. Its interesting. I don't see why anyone would keep a pair togehter if they didn't want fry but I see nothing wrong with destroying the eggs either if you don't want them.

 

[bmxer4ever]

I get money for my convict fry as well. Last year they were giving me $2.00 eatch, this year $1.00. I also sell my brichardi fry and am hoping my keyholes and bushynoses will produce something. I'm like BMKer, I just like having the fry around and watching the parents rear them. Its interesting. I don't see why anyone would keep a pair togehter if they didn't want fry but I see nothing wrong with destroying the eggs either if you don't want them.

Yeah, it was a similar situation with me this time. When I traded in the parents of my current 4 breeders I got more money than I did last Saturday. Same shop, but different guy that priced them. Something to bear in mind perhaps....
I think that, overall, last years batch might have been slightly bigger, hence the better price. Think I got around £2 - £3 ($4 - $6) last year (traded in 24 Cons), whereas I only got £8 for all 6 this time. Shop credit 1/2 retail, cash 1/3 retail - I always take the credit!
Is it 24 or 48 hrs from wriggler to free swimming? I can't remember!
It was cool to actually see them hatch this time. I looked this afternoon and there was 1 or 2 wrigglers, by late evening, they were ALL wriggling. Keeping my fingers crossed they make it. The other pair spawned twice in the last month, but no fry. This pair just got together a week ago, this is their first spawn.

 

[sandtiger]

I always deal with the same guy, the shop owner. These convicts I brought in this time were all larger then the previous batch, some were 3". I don't know why he paid me less. At the time I figured "alright, whatever. They are just convicts anyway" but after I got home I started thinking about it more. I tell you what though, when I take in keyholes and bushynoses I hope he pays more, those aren't even fish he ever has in stock.