How Do I Get Better Sucess For Convict Chichlids

[Shelby]

hey mom what is a water parameter. oh i havent bought any house hold amonia. havent had much time. i am going to try a fishless cycle but it has to wait becuase i have to find som amonia first. i might try to cycle my tank with some danios first cause i cant find the amonia. so am going to do that have to go post more later bell rang for class

Hi Bryan
Water Parameters: Amonia, nitrates, nitrites, ph, etc
Household amonia: I believe you can get it at hardware stores.
Danios: You will have to do a lot of water changes to keep them alive long enough to cycle your tank.
Filter inserts: DO NOT change them until they are falling apart.

If possible start a second filter about a month after the original. That way you are not changing inserts at the same time. The more bacteria you have in your filters the better off you are. I have an extra Aquaclear 200 filter if you need one next time you come down. I have 4 and am running two. I am going to set up the 3rd for a hospital/quaratine tank but the 4th is still open.

 

[bitteraspects]

Adding a second filter will not increase the ammount of bacteria present in the tank. Your system will only grow as much bacteria as is necessary to handle the bio-load.

 

[Shelby]

Adding a second filter will not increase the ammount of bacteria present in the tank. Your system will only grow as much bacteria as is necessary to handle the bio-load.

It does not increase the number of bacteria in the tank but it does add a second filter that is beginning to produce bacteria so when changing filter inserts it's not a total shock to the system. At least that seems to be a logical conclusion.

 

[shadowzbane]

i see. i might get another bio wheel so i have the same filters (size). like you said so it wont be a shock to the fish every time i have to change the filter. like they said above you can add danios and chichlids cause they get along or some thing like that but now that i know where to get amonia i might give that a go maybe. if i do get danios i could have fish sooner. so i will try to get a new filter but i dout it cause uncle tommy might say no or yes so like i said not quite sure. i am gonna go to pet smart tommorw or today to get a water sample done.

 

[drobbyb]

I've had biowheel filters for some time now, and I can tell you that if I change the inserts, it sends me into a mini cycle, regardless of the biowheel, every time.

That's because those HOB filters are garbage. Change over to AquaClear ASAP. You will never have that problem again.

I have and an external canister too.

 

[shadowzbane]

i see what is an external canister. i think i am going to petsart today to check on my water to see if it is safe so i can get some chichlids or to see if they have danios. if they do i am leaning towrds getting them. so i have some fish and so i dont have to keep puting amonia into the tank
i am now working on some reaserch about danios so i know what to feed them. oh and can loaches go into the chichlid comuniteie or will it get picked on by the danios or chichlids cause i hear loaches can keep a lot of the food the other fish do not eat and do they really eat the poop at the bottom of the tank i have some small places that the loache or loaches can hang if it is a possibilite to have loaches in the same tank


shadowzbane

 

[kaivalagi]

i see what is an external canister. i think i am going to petsart today to check on my water to see if it is safe so i can get some chichlids or to see if they have danios. if they do i am leaning towrds getting them. so i have some fish and so i dont have to keep puting amonia into the tank
i am now working on some reaserch about danios so i know what to feed them. oh and can loaches go into the chichlid comuniteie or will it get picked on by the danios or chichlids cause i hear loaches can keep a lot of the food the other fish do not eat and do they really eat the poop at the bottom of the tank i have some small places that the loache or loaches can hang if it is a possibilite to have loaches in the same tank

I have 4 Peppered Cory and 3 oto's in with my 2 firemouth cichlids, I also did have Danios in the there which got on fine with the FMs too (they are now in a friends new tank)

I think with Loaches (and Corys/Otos etc) most of the time they wont be bothered, apart from maybe being followed by the cichlids when in search of a bite to eat in the tank. However if your Cichlids start breeding, then it will be hell for anything else in the tank. Most of, if not all, bottom feeders/cleaner crews will probably wander into Cichlid territory and if they the Cichlids are breeding they will get somewhat aggressive towards them.

From what I have read too, Convicts are VERY aggressive...and breed easy...so this situation may arise fairly quickly once the fish are adult.

I am not sure with Convicts as to whether it is better to get a Plec (not a common one but something that will not grow too large, an L1 maybe...) as Plecs keep out of the way for the most part and only really get active when Cichlids would become inactive (for the most part )

Have you thought about other Cichlids as an alternative to Convicts? I have 2 Firemouths which are doing well, the male can get a bit butch but nothing the bottom feeders can't handle...my profile pic to the left is of him almost a month ago. I think you should be able to find Firemouths at a similar price to Convicts...

Remember whatever fish you get, get them in small amounts and wait a good week or two before adding more...you don't want any more mini-cycles As you have more fish settled in the tank you can add a higher amount, you just need to make sure the amount you add is a low percentage of what you have already...

Good luck!

 

[shadowzbane]

okay so if i do with the danio's i will be able to cycle my tank. then i might buy some fm's if my uncle will let me idk he might only let me get the convicts if i do get the fm's what do you need to breed them. is it the same stuff as the convict or other things kind of like the convicts. i will have to do some more research on the topic i hope i dont have to spend a lot of time evert time i want to cycle my tank that might be a pain. because every time i want to clean my tank i go through mini cycles and all of my fish die on me thank you for the advice it has been realy helpful


shadowzbane

 

[kaivalagi]

okay so if i do with the danio's i will be able to cycle my tank. then i might buy some fm's if my uncle will let me idk he might only let me get the convicts if i do get the fm's what do you need to breed them. is it the same stuff as the convict or other things kind of like the convicts. i will have to do some more research on the topic i hope i dont have to spend a lot of time evert time i want to cycle my tank that might be a pain. because every time i want to clean my tank i go through mini cycles and all of my fish die on me thank you for the advice it has been realy helpful

No worries, I am sure I speak for everyone here when I say we're all here to help and be helped

You'll have a little while to read up whilst you are waiting for the tank to get through the initial cycle, have a look at FM and Convict breeding...I do get the sense that Convict breeding is easier from what I've read and I haven't got adult FMs yet so can't speak first hand on breeding them.

You may be waiting for some time before any breeding so Loaches may well be okay in the tank...they may well get on with the Cichlids later on too, it's hard to know. Do you have someone who could take any fish off you that may get into trouble with cichlids? If so do what you think is best and worst case you can move the fish and not have to watch them suffer/die later on...