CONVICTS

[xamdarb]

anyone here have any info on convicts for example what size tank do they need how do they do with other fish are they aggresive...thanks alot for the help im out!

 

[xamdarb]

....Anyone

 

[yvez9]

direct from the TFF Fish index

Convict Porifle

 

[spanishguy111]

direct from the TFF Fish index

Convict Porifle

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Convicts need water. That's about it. Hardiest fish you can throw at a tank IME. They're pretty much happy in any water conditions, as long as its not insanely high or low pH. Ideal temperature is around 80F (just over 26 celsius). Ideal pH is 6.8 to about 7.8 with 6.8-7.4 being best.... They can get pretty big so a 20Gal is a good minimum tank size with a 29G or more being ideal. You can keep a group of convicts in a larger tank, trying to maintain a higher number of females than males. An important thing to keep in mind is that if you take even mediocre care of them, they will breed. You can avoid this by keeping an eye out for eggs and vacuuming them up, or better yet, keep all females with out any males (easily distinguished by their orange or sometimes reddish orange patches on the stomach *not visible on small babies*)

*Gravel should be a dark color, and not too big, they enjoy digging and randomly piling gravel. Its a hobby of theirs... They can do it for hours. Ideally, just scape with large flat or rounded rocks and pieces of driftwood. They like having places to hide. If you can make several caves this will be helpful. Never make just one as the fish are likely to fight over it. Remember, convicts are agressive.

*Dont go nuts with the aquascaping, because if they want to move something, odds are they will. Plants aren't going to last long, especially if the convict wants to dig where the plant is. You can use plastic plants, but try to use ones that arent overly fragile, and anchor them into the gravel or ideally between large rocks so they cant be dug up.

*Ideal tankmates are pretty much nothing. Its about what can tolerate their aggression more than anything. You're best keeping them alone, honestly. You can add a couple of crawfish as bottomfeeders, which look cool and don't get messed around much by convicts, make sure you give the crawfish tiny caves only it can squeeze into, when it sheds, its squishy for a few days and can be eaten easily. FEED THE CRAWFISH!!!

Filtration should provide a fairly heavy current, as your crawfish and convicts will very much enjoy this. Also use something with a heavy filtration capacity, convicts can get up to 7" if taken good care of and eat a LOTTTT of food *you have nooo idea*

Ideal food for the craw AND convicts is the following:

HIKARI Cichlid Complete

HBH Veggie Flakes

HIKARI Frozen Bloodworm, Mysis Shrimp, and Krill *hard for baby cons to eat unless chopped*

HBH Veggie Wafers *Its more for the crawfish

Tetra Bottomin sinking tablets *Every other day. Has large quantities of calcium for your crawfish- keep in mind overfeeding it will buffer your water up, and eventually raise your pH a little so dont over do it.


If you're a really good samaritan set up a 10G to breed some guppies and toss the fry into the convict tank. Best food ever. Conversely, when the cons lay eggs, feed the eggs to the guppies. It all works out.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

i've heard that breeding convicts will not tolerate anything but their partner--and sometimes they won't even tolerate each other.

i'd think twice and do a lot more reading/research before getting into convict keeping. they're quite the aggressive fish.

 

[xamdarb]

what about keeping them with a school of 4-5 tiger barbs since they are so dang fast...and a tad agressive themselfs

 

[pica_nuttalli]

what size tank?

 

[spanishguy111]

what about keeping them with a school of 4-5 tiger barbs since they are so dang fast...and a tad agressive themselfs

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in a 35G you have a chance. Make sure you sweep any eggs immmmeeeeddiiiaaatteelllyyy.

Any other tank size, just get a colony of cons. And for crying out loud there's no research to do I just told the guy everything he needs to know. Water. Convicts. Mostly females. No males if you dont want babies. Sweep Eggs. Feed well.

 

[xamdarb]

33g

 

[Ben]

IMO and IME they keep to pairs and will kill off anything else, leave the 33 gal to themselves and you will have babies in no time

DD

 

[pica_nuttalli]

you should always doublecheck ANY information/advice given to you.

spanishguy, you're the first person i've seen on here that has said "female convicts get along ok". i'm also suspicious of your recommendation of keeping a colony of convicts in a larger tank, where larger tank apparently just indicates a 35g. that's not very big really.

xamdarb, i suggest you look through the many older topics and that you use Google to search for more information. i can think of a Cichlid Forum that might be helpful, but it'd be against our rules to provide a hot link to them.

 

[bugsy66]

I can add my very short lived experience with cons, I just got rid of my female the otherday and kept the male only. I just love his colors and think he is so neat looking. I only had them for about 1 month and in that time yes they did lay eggs which I vacumed fast but they also had my two rams, catfish and pleco all pinned into one corner. The pleco could not clean the glass at night anywhere, the tank glass was not looking very nice to say the least. Since the female is gone it took him a day to settle down and now the glass is all nice and clean as Mr. Pleco can do his job, the rams are swimming all over the tank and low and behold he has actually bonded with them both and the three of them are quite smitten swimming with each other. No more aggression and all is just fine now.

In short, these fish when paired up are highly highly aggressive in my opinion. Babies are not easy to get rid of and the four stores here said they will not take any fry as they are not easy to sell. So if you like the look of the cons like I do I would be more attempted to do a nice display of "one" in a tank with other Central American Cichlids.

My rams are not from the same area as they are but hey, they are getting along just beautifully.

Good Luck.....bugsy

 

[GirlinWayside]

all good information! I had convicts at one time - two of them - females and they lived fine with a pleco in a 55 gallon tank. I moved and ended up leaving them with my roommate I had at the time. (so thats why I no longer have them).

 

[sub.42]

all good information! I had convicts at one time - two of them - females and they lived fine with a pleco in a 55 gallon tank. I moved and ended up leaving them with my roommate I had at the time. (so thats why I no longer have them).

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Yep,

100% Pleco bashers without space. Mind you, space is needed for most new worlds. My pleco now hides inside my redundant filter casing when harrassed by the others.

sub.

 

[Andyplec]

Would you recommend reedfish with convict cichlids, or will the convicts see my reedfish as food?