# Breeding Convicts



## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

How big do they have to be before they start breeding? I bought a pair of them yesterday, both are a little over an inch long. I have them in a 10-gallon tank with PLENTY of foliage. The male chases around the female a fair bit, but no signs of breeding.

I hear that other fish are good to put in with a convict pair in a tank, to keep the convicts' aggression centered on said fish rather than each other. So I stuck in a 2.5" african mbuna and a 1" red claw crab in the tank as well. The mbuna is obviously the dominant fish but doesn't pester the convicts at all so long as they keep out of his way, and aside from plotting his eventual escape from the aquarium, the crab doesn't do jack.

So, how long till the cons start mating? And while your at it, can u tell me how long it takes before the eggs hatch, and then how long it takes before the fry start free-swimming, and tell me when I need to start feeding the fry? And then, how long does it take the fry to hit, say, 1/4 to 1/2 an inch (thereby making them suitable feeders)?

Thanks


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

I don't know much about cons, but I juess they need to be sexually mature - how big that is I don't know.
also they are ment to be realy easy to breed - just add them to water.

if you add other fish when the cons are breeding they will be really aggressive and possibly harm the other fish - or the other fish may eat some eegs and fry.

I will try and hook you up with some handy links later :







:


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## Seifer (Apr 10, 2003)

i had a breeding pair of convicts for a year or 2..

they lay eggs, and the eggs take about 5 days if i remember right to hatch..

it takes about 3 weeks-1 month for them to be about 1/4-1/2" long.

i dont think they would make very good feeders. you could trade the babies to your LFS for feeders though.. you can usually get about 50 cents fish credit for every baby you trade them as long as the baby is half and inch to an inch long.

they dont breed too often either, i think i had 3 or 4 batches of babys, and each batch produced about 10 babies that actually lived to see 1/2"

if you want cheap ass feeders, breed guppys.

i know a guy that has oscars, and he supplies the LFS with all their baby oscars.. he has a 225gal with 5 oscars, 2 of which lay eggs about every month, and he gets about 50-60 baby oscars out of each batch.. he feeds the baby oscars he cant sell to his other fish.


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## armac (Nov 28, 2002)

i have 2 pairs of convicts that breed continously, after i move the parents away the babies, within 10 days i have eggs again. i have had 6 or 8 broods going at one time, different sizes, on several occasions. very easy to breed and very neat fish. once they are mature enough to tell the female from the male they should be ready to breed. once you have eggs raise the temp(82degrees) and the egss will hatch in as little as 3 days. lots of small water changes will greatly increase growth rate of babies. feed them crushed flaked food. good luck


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

Innes said:


> I will try and hook you up with some handy links later :
> 
> 
> 
> ...











_Cichlasoma Nigrofasciatum_ previously known as _Archocentrus Nigrofasciatum_

heres a handy convict link
heres another handy convict link
heres another handy convict link
heres yet another handy convict link


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

YAY :







: Well then based on that info, my cons should be breedable; its just that theyre not pairing off... rargh. Actually the female tends to follow the male around alot, but the male always chases her away


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## unxchange (Mar 4, 2003)

Good luck, it shouldn't be hard.


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## plonker_from_mars (May 1, 2003)

2.5 inchs is when they are sexually mature


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## yonderway (Apr 28, 2003)

plonker I must respectfully disagree.

You may have heard this story before.

I'm not terribly good at breeding fish. Sure, it's happened to me a lot over the many years that I've been at this, but almost never when I was actually _trying_. I bought a pair of convicts because someone told me they were easy to breed. I had them in a 150 gallon tank with a bunch of mixed guapotes, including a large pair of manageunse.

Something wonderful must have been in the water because, simultaneously, the convicts and the managuense started nesting. For the convicts it was just a flowerpot and the area immediately surrounding it. For the managuense, it was the whole left half of the tank.

All the other fish were removed when the managuense started killing stuff.

The managuense laid thousands of eggs, up the sides of the tank, over the UGF plate, on rocks, filter tubes, you name it. I've never seen such a clutch in my life. And I had nowhere to move the babies to. The convicts had, at best, a couple of hundred eggs.

The adult convicts ate the baby managuense (yes, all of them). When they were full, they simply killed them and spat them out. They handily killed the full grown adult managuense couple, too.

The baby convicts were growing out in the big tank and just about the time that you could tell the females from the males, they started pairing off and I'd have small clutches of fertile eggs here and there around the tank. I know they were fertile because they hatched (albeit in much smaller numbers than what you would get from adults... maybe 30 eggs or so at best per pair).

The convicts wrecked my wonderful community, and killed a gorgeous proven mated pair of managuense. They bred like tribbles. You had better believe that the convicts quickly became food for my saltwater beasties, like the clown triggerfish, the various puffers, the spotted hawkfish, several morays, etc. You get the picture.


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

yonderway said:


> plonker I must respectfully disagree.
> 
> You may have heard this story before.
> 
> ...


 THATS AMAZING 

seriously tho, the jaguars musta been small, i just cant see a 5 inch small-mouthed con killing off a 10 inch jag....

my freaking cons still arent mating tho :


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## unxchange (Mar 4, 2003)

plonker_from_mars said:


> 2.5 inchs is when they are sexually mature


 Convicts can breed at as small as 3/4'' of an inch.


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## unxchange (Mar 4, 2003)

How big were the Jaguars and how big were the Convicts? 
The Jaguar laid about 1000 eggs? I suppose they were pretty big?


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## plonker_from_mars (May 1, 2003)

i stand corrected


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## yonderway (Apr 28, 2003)

piranha45 said:


> seriously tho, the jaguars musta been small, i just cant see a 5 inch small-mouthed con killing off a 10 inch jag....


 The managuense were actually quite large, in the neighborhood of 12 to 14 inches.

The convicts, on the other hand, were not yet full grown and couldn't have been more than 3"

Pound for pound, a mated convict may be the most viscious animal on the face of the planet. It would even (quite fearlessly) attack my hand. The managuense would not.


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

incredible...


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