Whats my convict doing??

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K

Keeper of the Ropes

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 29, 2006
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Texas
I'm new to cichlids and new to black convicts. I bought four in the hopes they'd make some feeders for my other monsters. Just spent fifteen minutes staring at them (they're so cool :) ) and I have a question about one of my young females. If any of my other fish spent this much time rubbing their stomachs on the side of a rock, I'd run for fish meds in a heart beat. Its the same rock, over and over. Is she sick or is she getting ready to lay eggs? Theres a young male hanging out with her in the corner and after she rubs her belly on the rock for awhile, he'll swim over but he doesn't do anything special... just swims over and then leaves again. Should I be worried or should I be expecting fry soon? I can't see any eggs.
 
Ive got eggs :) Im so excited! She laid them on the rock right next to the one she was rubbing on. This is so fun - I know I'll only be this amazed maybe this time and the next time she lays, then it'll be boring, but I've never had a fish lay eggs before. Shoot, I bred sixth gen. guppies and I still got excited when I had fry. This is awesome! She's only an inch and a half long and she's got this other three, three and a half inch male backed up against the other side of the tank. Good girl :)
 
If they do this frequently and you end up over run with fry it won't seem so special, but that first batch of cons is always awesome! I love watching their breeding behaviour. They are an under rated cichlid for sure. If kept with something sneaky like a firemouth (they seem to love to pick off eggs and fry, my last one was horrible for egg stealing) then you often have a controlled population. Breeding cons isn't all that difficult, but can still be quite special none the less. Take every bit of the behaviour in and enjoy! Congrats.
 
You guys aren't going to believe this. I got a gigantic (compared to my little inch and a halfers) male from the LFS today in the intentions of letting him help finish cycling my new 55... but I threw him in with the smaller ones first to see what would happen. Before I brought him home I had three females to the one male - now the first male is with one of the ladies... and one of the little girls paired off with the new giganto already. Its only been a few hours and they claimed a rock. Shes so red she glows and rubbing her belly all over the rock. I'm using the extra female for the 55 - she was getting beat up pretty bad ever since I got her. But anyway - the other girl is acting exactly the same as the first did before she spawned so I may end up with two batches of fry at the same time. yAY!!!!!!!!!
 
good job. might wind up a total war zone if they're all in your 10g though.
 
Yep. I'll wait and see how it goes though. It kinda cracks me up - I fed them some frozen brine shrimp and theres a big pile in the middle of the tank that no one will eat. One pair goes for it, the other chases them away... then vice versa. Silly fishes!
 
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