Young Convicts

[Wulfonce]

Will young convicts about 1" long behave themselves in a 20 community tank full of mollys corys neon tetras and mic. fry.

I bought a male and female convict today with the intention of putting them in my 25g tank along with my other pair of convicts 4.5" and 2" long. I held the bag up to the tank and looked at them side by side then had one of those "what was I thinking" moments. There is tons of hiding places in the tank but I still have my doubts that the big male will tolerate them being there.

 

[klmt]

they will eat any molly fry and 2 pairs will never work in a 25 gallon.

 

[Wulfonce]

they will eat any molly fry and 2 pairs will never work in a 25 gallon.

Yeah I'm aware of them eating the mollys and such (once they grow up). That was only a temporary solution if putting them in the 25 didn't work out.

I have them in the 25 now with the other pair and "so far" they all seem to be getting along, there even schooling together. If it doesn't work out I have a backup plan, Booting my brothers betta out of my spare 20.

 

[kendrew]

i wouldnt be too concerned about the interactions between the new and old cons...what i would recomend is making sure there are plenty of hiding spots just big enough for the little ones to hide.... concider putting them in a net inclosure or a plastic one like you would use to seperate mother fish form thier fry and other fish.... i think they are called brooders..
place the small cons in it for a few days till the older larger ones get use to seeing them in the tank... i have had great sucess with this method... i introduced a small 1/4" honduran red point into a tank of large 3+" south americans....worked great!!! alos used it for introducing young flowerhorns to adults...

 

[Wulfonce]

i wouldnt be too concerned about the interactions between the new and old cons...what i would recomend is making sure there are plenty of hiding spots just big enough for the little ones to hide.... concider putting them in a net inclosure or a plastic one like you would use to seperate mother fish form thier fry and other fish.... i think they are called brooders..
place the small cons in it for a few days till the older larger ones get use to seeing them in the tank... i have had great sucess with this method... i introduced a small 1/4" honduran red point into a tank of large 3+" south americans....worked great!!! alos used it for introducing young flowerhorns to adults...

I had them in the 25 with the other cons and they were getting along fine for about 30 minuets. Later on the male started showing extreme aggression toward them and even ripped up plants and moved small rocks in an effort to get up close to them. They were small enough to hide in places the 4.5" con couldn't get, but that didn't stop him from trying. The male con even managed to turn himself sideways and wedge himself under a piece of driftwood which I had to lift up to free him. He started turning all white with stress so I decided to remove the new cons and put them in my spare 20 along with my bros betta. well that didn't work out to well either.

The betta kept attacking the cons. I watched for awhile expecting the cons to hold their own but it never happened. So I moved them into my other 20, the fry raiser/ hospital tank. They should be fine there for awhile until I find a tank for them and only them. I've seen alot of cheap tanks on kijiji, I'll keep my eyes opened.

EDIT: oh yeah, the reason I removed them from the con tank was because im trying to get the other 2 cons to breed (for feeders). It took about 3 weeks for the cons to accept each other and I figured the last thing they need is unnecessary stress. The male seemed to temporarily lose his mind, ignoring the female and attacking the other cons (including the original female). I figured removing them from the picture was the best thing to do.