Woo Hoo Babies. . . .

[slidewaysL28E]

Okay so a few of you may already know that I have a rather small overcrowded cichlid tank. I started out by having 9 Black Convicts and 5 Jack Dempseys in my 25Gallon tank. This wasn't too bad because when I first got the fish they were extremely small and needed to be in a shoal anyway. Now I would say that the average fish is 1 3/4'' with some smaller and some larger. Awhile back, probably three weeks I noticed that two of the black convicts had paired off and starting digging this large pit in the corner of the tank, well as of yesterday it measured 7'' x 7'' and approximately 3'' deep. So after reading plenty about cichlasoma nigrofasciatum, i assumed that it would be awhile before any of the fish were ready to breed, . . . hehehe boy was I wrong because I came home from work today and looked into the tank, at first I thought it was dirt but, then I realized that they had actually bred and I now have approximately 40 free swimming fry which all look normal and healthy. I couldn't be more excited and im preparing right now to setup a few more tanks for the other fish so that the 25Gallon could be just for this breeding pair. Im heading out later tonight to petsmart to pick up a brine shrimp hatchery and a few other things. My little Convicts are being quite the protective parents too as they won't let any of the other fish anywhere near there brood. Any advice from experience breeders would be much appreciated. . . thanks guys and girls, wish me luck

[Georgia Peach]

awwwww! I love convicts! Congrats on the fry! They are great parents too! Good luck with them - we need some pics!

[fishfreaks]

Congrats! Convicts are wonderful parents and will protect the fry all you really have to worry about is feeding them and keeping your water parameters in check. If you have algae in the tank they will also nibble on that

[slidewaysL28E]

Okay so I just got back from Petsmart, Bought the san fransico bay brand shrimpery, some extra brine shrimp eggs, and a little packet of Hikari First Bites.

[Georgia Peach]

sounds like you are off to a good start!

[slidewaysL28E]

Okay I have one question though, when do the convict fry stop feeding off of their yolk sack? I don't want them to starve but, I don't want to be dumping this food into the water if it's not going to be eaten. I think I can assume that they were free swimming not even 24hours ago. So one they are free swimming does that mean they're in search of food?

[fishfreaks]

You've got it. Here is a profile on them http://www.fishforums.com/profileart...thread.php?t=4

[slidewaysL28E]

Okay, thank you very much for your help but, I have another question rofl. I removed all of the other cichlids from this tank, so now all that remains in this 25G is the parents and their fry. I added some large Amazon swords to provide shade and shelter, already in the tank is a medium sized piece of driftwood and a few small rocks. My question is this, would I be able to keep any other type of fish in the tank? such as some cories, a pleco, oto's, etc I would like to have something small in the tank to help clean up extra food but not large enough to hard the fry.

[fishfreaks]

I would go for a faster moving fish. A dither fish would be good also to keep down the aggression levels between the male and female.

[slidewaysL28E]

See I don't think faster moving would help much because when I was advised to add a schooling fish to the tank to encourage the cichlids to come out from hiding I bought six tiger barbs which are almost the same size as the cichlids, within a few days three of the tiger barbs were gone and the remaining three learned to dodge the black fish that chase them hehehe

[Cichlid Man]

I wouldn't reccomend putting anything in with cichlids as long as they are the same size.

[slidewaysL28E]

Alllllllrighty then alone they will stay, thank you cichlid man.

[wildtiger]

I personally think you could get away with a plec, something smallish like a bristlenose who actually likes to eat algae. Would definitely not go with cories or ottos though.

[slidewaysL28E]

Well I don't really have a problem with algae, I just want something to pick up the extra food at the bottom of the tank but, being that the parents are highly aggressive at the moment I don't want to risk killing a few cories by testing them. I mean the mother convict took a nice chunk out of a jack dempsey that was a bit larger than her

[Georgia Peach]

yeah, you will have a hard time adding anything to their tank at the moment.

[fishfreaks]

So you guys dont think they should add a dither fish? What about the agression between the male and female?

[Cichlid Man]

I doubt that adding a dither would make much difference, it rarely does.
A plec larger than the cichlids will be fine.

[slidewaysL28E]

Update: So far so good, yesterday the fry began swimming more towards the middle of the tank, the parents continue to destroy the amazon swords that I put in there but, I knew that would happne. I bought a 29G complete last night for $100 on another forum (local) so I should be set for space.

[slidewaysL28E]

PICS UP:

[Fishboy93]

Whats a dither fish??