# Breeding Convicts For Food And Pets



## Sylar_92

Hey guys, I am planning to buy a breeding pair convicts. I was wondering if anyone who bred convicts can give me some advice, I have a free 40gallon which is already setup and is cycling. I added some small clay pots, rock cave decor for the convicts to lay the eggs on, an airstone to provide more oxygen and a small 10gal tank under it to be setup later when the pair give birth. Thanks in advance greatly appreciate it.


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## wremi

male con + female con + water = babies. Cons will breed really easily for you. Ive even had them lay their eggs on the side of the glass before. If you are going to seperate the fry, they will breed about every 3 weeks.


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## Co. Caines

You should also get a small test con and try to feed it to your fish before you waste any time with breeding. I am doing the whole breeding thing, but my RBPs failed the test... I threw in 4 small convicts to test it out and they only ate 1. The RBPs were to lazy to chase down the rest. So now I have about 40+ convict fry that is going to grow up to be pets.


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## Guest

co caines send your convicts my way







convicts are over populating..... hah my RRS will like the snack.

just kidding to far away...

yes convicts will breed like crazy.... i have 2 pair of breeding convicts in a tank... it is a 72gal bowfront. Not really many good hiding spots... but the 2 somewhat caves that they stay in. They are in there with a jag cichlid, gourami, pleco, raph cat, and one oddball convict. needless to say... the jag cichlid takes a lot away from being piranha food.


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## Sylar_92

Co. Caines said:


> You should also get a small test con and try to feed it to your fish before you waste any time with breeding. I am doing the whole breeding thing, but my RBPs failed the test... I threw in 4 small convicts to test it out and they only ate 1. The RBPs were to lazy to chase down the rest. So now I have about 40+ convict fry that is going to grow up to be pets.


lol no problem man, my piranhas eat anything that moves in the tank. My red are primary what Im feeding the convicts to. I will probally feed some convicts to my 4" blue diamond but he only eats once a week, or 5 small fish in a day.


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## FEEFA

So did you pick some cons up yet, how many?


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## Sylar_92

FEEFA said:


> So did you pick some cons up yet, how many?


Yeah, I got sold a breeding pair from another local resident for $10 and bought a dozen 2 inchers from BigAls which were $2.99 ea. The breeding pair consisted of a 6" male and a 4" female, while the smaller ones I got from BigAls were a mix of regular banded convicts and pink pink/white convicts, the guy told me I can interbreed the pinks with the banded ones.


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## FEEFA

The large pair you got would produce tonnes of fry on their own but good that you got more of them to pair off


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## Sylar_92

The guy said the pair produced atleast 2 times for him so far, so I could expect them to be laying their eggs in the next month or so. The pair are already courting eachother and have dug several holes in the sand and cleaned of a large flat slate of rock I added in their a few weeks ago when the tank was cycling. How many babies should i be getting prepared for on average? 8 of the twelve 2 inchers have already paired off, which I thought was weird seeing in how young they still are. The pink male paired of with one of the banded females, it going to be interesting to see what their babies are going to look like. I post some pics when they lay their eggs.


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## Co. Caines

Good luck with your breeding project


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## wremi

So, you have a 40 gallon with 5 pairs of convicts? That'll be fun to watc, your going to get some major aggression when they start breeding. Ihave a 75 with 1 pair of convicts, a 4 inch Oscar and a 4 inch pike cichlid and when the cons have babies they keep the oscar and pike on one third of the tank, while they have control of the rest of it. I think I'm going to set up a 20 long for the cons to have to themselves.


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## Sylar_92

wremi said:


> So, you have a 40 gallon with 5 pairs of convicts? That'll be fun to watc, your going to get some major aggression when they start breeding. Ihave a 75 with 1 pair of convicts, a 4 inch Oscar and a 4 inch pike cichlid and when the cons have babies they keep the oscar and pike on one third of the tank, while they have control of the rest of it. I think I'm going to set up a 20 long for the cons to have to themselves.


How many babies are going to be produced on average? Im using the abnormal pattern looking ones for piranha food, but the nicer looking babies with more colourization will be sold to my local BigAls or on kijiji for $1.


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## Guest

Pics, pics and more pics


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## wremi

Sylar_92 said:


> So, you have a 40 gallon with 5 pairs of convicts? That'll be fun to watc, your going to get some major aggression when they start breeding. Ihave a 75 with 1 pair of convicts, a 4 inch Oscar and a 4 inch pike cichlid and when the cons have babies they keep the oscar and pike on one third of the tank, while they have control of the rest of it. I think I'm going to set up a 20 long for the cons to have to themselves.


How many babies are going to be produced on average? Im using the abnormal pattern looking ones for piranha food, but the nicer looking babies with more colourization will be sold to my local BigAls or on kijiji for $1.
[/quote]

If they all survive, you could end up with over 100 babies per pair every 3-4 weeks.


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## wremi

Heres a video of my pair protecting their 2/3 of the 75 gallon. They have eggs right now.


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## Sylar_92

Thats a nice vid, Thanks for the info man I appreciate it.


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## wremi

Sylar_92 said:


> Thats a nice vid, Thanks for the info man I appreciate it.


Thanks and no problem.


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## Sylar_92

My convicts are about to mate i think. The male's sex organ is erect of protruding out and so is the female's egg tube. These are signs that they are ready to breed right? Besides that they have dug holes in my sand and cleaned off a slate rock also the female's sides are bright orange and her fins turned sky blue from the normal greyish-blue.


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## FEEFA

I feel sorry for the other convicts, you should not have bought so many pairs if you only had the one small tank

Good luck though


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## wremi

Sylar_92 said:


> My convicts are about to mate i think. The male's sex organ is erect of protruding out and so is the female's egg tube. These are signs that they are ready to breed right? Besides that they have dug holes in my sand and cleaned off a slate rock also the female's sides are bright orange and her fins turned sky blue from the normal greyish-blue.


Yup. sounds like they're getting ready. Probally going to be a warzone in there now too.


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## Sylar_92

FEEFA said:


> I feel sorry for the other convicts, you should not have bought so many pairs if you only had the one small tank
> 
> Good luck though


Yes! the pair layed their eggs on the stump of bog wood I put it there. There seems to be 100 eggs or so. Just to be safe though I put the smaller convicts I had in with my brother's florida soft shell turtle. He also has a 40gallon. The smaller ones around 2" followed the pair around sorta like adoped parents but there was the 3" male that didnt, guess he's smrter than the rest.


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## Co. Caines

two of the remaining small test convicts i threw into my piranha tank to be feeders has now laid eggs on a fake tree in the corner of my tank and now are punking off every fish in the tank when they get close except for the plecos. the convicts are the smallest fish in the tank. and all the other fish just allow them to do this. i dont want them to be allowed to reproduce in the tank because thhe fry will just get sucked up by my filter intakes. Sylar i really hope u dont end up with the same problems as me.


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## Sylar_92

Co. Caines said:


> two of the remaining small test convicts i threw into my piranha tank to be feeders has now laid eggs on a fake tree in the corner of my tank and now are punking off every fish in the tank when they get close except for the plecos. the convicts are the smallest fish in the tank. and all the other fish just allow them to do this. i dont want them to be allowed to reproduce in the tank because thhe fry will just get sucked up by my filter intakes. Sylar i really hope u dont end up with the same problems as me.


I already tested it out, happy to say the piranhas swarmed the convict as it hit the water. My black rhom took a while but he destryed the cons too. My reds are getting too aggressive though, the larger ones are finger chasing too much which I guess is my fault for teaching to. Do you think its because I feed them cons as their live food? My reds have chimples now from chasing my finger and the glass cleaner.


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## Co. Caines

my breeding pair laid a second batch of eggs the other day. but i was told they wouldnt breed again until the initial fry were removed. should i take out the original fry or could the first batch co exist with the second batch... or will the parents kill the first batch. the first batch is only +19 days old


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## Sylar_92

Co. Caines said:


> my breeding pair laid a second batch of eggs the other day. but i was told they wouldnt breed again until the initial fry were removed. should i take out the original fry or could the first batch co exist with the second batch... or will the parents kill the first batch. the first batch is only +19 days old


I thought of about too, Since this is my first convict breeding op Im not sure. I would remove them just incase theparents get hungry while protecting the new batch. My batch hatched about 1 week and a half ago, the colony of fry look bigger a few days ago Im wondering if some got eaten or did they go up the filter even though theres a corse sponge over it.


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## Co. Caines

I had a fine mesh filter media bag over my intake and I had to turn it off because the male convict was purposely ramming it in hopes to get me to shut it off or to break it. So I am left with just the sponge filter and air pump. I was gonna turn my filter on 3 days ago since the fry seemed stronger and bigger and that's when I realized the new batch of eggs beside the intake. My fry count looks smaller too, but when you have +50 plus fry swimming around it's hard to keep count. I tried removing my fry earlier tonight since the eggs r due to hatch today, but the male convict kept ramming my net.

I don't know what makes convicts think the are indestructible and that they make the rules in my house.


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## Sylar_92

Co. Caines said:


> I had a fine mesh filter media bag over my intake and I had to turn it off because the male convict was purposely ramming it in hopes to get me to shut it off or to break it. So I am left with just the sponge filter and air pump. I was gonna turn my filter on 3 days ago since the fry seemed stronger and bigger and that's when I realized the new batch of eggs beside the intake. My fry count looks smaller too, but when you have +50 plus fry swimming around it's hard to keep count. I tried removing my fry earlier tonight since the eggs r due to hatch today, but the male convict kept ramming my net.
> 
> I don't know what makes convicts think the are indestructible and that they make the rules in my house.


LOL, you should do what I did to my convicts to show them whos boss. The day after the eggs hatched the male convict was bullying the weak female so I grabbed him and tossed him into my red bellies tank. As soon as he hit the water he tried taking over the tank because he's 4 times the size of one of my reds, but once he realized that there were 11 hungry reds chasing him he turned chicken sh*t and swam into the corner. I let my reds chase him down and nip him for a while, but not long enough for him to substain any flesh or scale damage. After that I put him back into his tank with his fry and now when I put my hand in he corners himself under the a log I had in the tank. Strange thing is Im not sure how they layed their eggs upside down on the underside of my driftwood stump.


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## thundergolf

Co. Caines said:


> my breeding pair laid a second batch of eggs the other day. but i was told they wouldnt breed again until the initial fry were removed. should i take out the original fry or could the first batch co exist with the second batch... or will the parents kill the first batch. the first batch is only +19 days old


I would remove the first batch. The convicts that i had would eat the first batch when they new batch was hatched.
Good Luck with your convicts they are a lot of fun to watch. I had a divided 60g tank with a breeding pair on both sides. Every other week had tons of fry. I removed the fry once they were able to swim free and put them into some 10g's. After about a month or so i transfered them into a 55g for grow out.


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## Sylar_92

LOL, I just dumped all my older fry in my red belly tank. 75 fry vs 9 three inch reds, 1 four inch red and 1 two inch red, the feast was short and confusing because all I saw was the reds swarm and bubbles everywhere. They were done in 57secs, some of them flew up my Rena XP4 I think.


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## Co. Caines

Sylar_92 said:


> LOL, I just dumped all my older fry in my red belly tank. 75 fry vs 9 three inch reds, 1 four inch red and 1 two inch red, the feast was short and confusing because all I saw was the reds swarm and bubbles everywhere. They were done in 57secs, some of them flew up my Rena XP4 I think.


yea i figured something like that would happen with them getting sucked up filters. so i am waiting until the convicts get a bit more meat on them. my breeding pair ate the second batch of fry as soon as the hatched and i am pretty sure the first batch of fry joined in on that feast. one night before i went to bed all the eggs were there, next morning all the eggs were gone and no sign of the new fry.


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## Sylar_92

Co. Caines said:


> LOL, I just dumped all my older fry in my red belly tank. 75 fry vs 9 three inch reds, 1 four inch red and 1 two inch red, the feast was short and confusing because all I saw was the reds swarm and bubbles everywhere. They were done in 57secs, some of them flew up my Rena XP4 I think.


yea i figured something like that would happen with them getting sucked up filters. so i am waiting until the convicts get a bit more meat on them. my breeding pair ate the second batch of fry as soon as the hatched and i am pretty sure the first batch of fry joined in on that feast. one night before i went to bed all the eggs were there, next morning all the eggs were gone and no sign of the new fry.
[/quote]

I kept other fish with my convicts to distract from eating their eggs, so they just kep their mind on defending the eggs and fry. I feed the breeding pair atleast 4 times a day with a mix of flakes and cichlid gold. I think all the fish food I buy are Hikari brand lol, it seems to be the best brand for my fish so far.


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