Hundreds of baby fish

[Ronny#66]

This is second time in 35 years of aquarium hobby I've had baby fish. The last time was in a cichlid tank and this time in my 55 gal chiclid I don't think I 'm spelling that right. But anyway the parents are guarding them but I was on road when my wife noticed them . Well the babies are black convicts. The other fish realy are trying to get them. I have a small tank with a few guppies. was going to try to siphone some out and move them to the guppy tank till they grow.I think with out the parents guppies would get them too. So What can I do. I know this is fresh subj. but need advise .

Ronny

[dwd5813]

if you want to wait till you're gonna be around they'll make more soon enough. we had convict fry almost constantly in my class tank last year.

[Juruense]

Let them get eaten. They are not worth anything and you do not want to have too many. Let the quick survive...

[Ronny#66]

Ya I think all nature is worth more than us humans !! But here a convict is about $ 8.00 well worth it . I think there one of of the most interesting of the cichlids . I'm going to let nature take it's course.

Ronny

[Juruense]

A pet store may get $8 for one but you won't. You would be very lucky to even get in store credit for them...

[ihopss]

You can take the predetor out.

[PRDubois]

I have raised them for 15 years. Put live plants in your tank for them to hide. Little tubes like 3" of 1/2" pvc is good for them to hide in also. Also the convicts like 4" clay flowerpots. It gives them a place to guard and to lay thier eggs.

Now that you have a mating pair, do a 10% water change every week. Water change makes Convicts beed like crazy. You will have more fish then you know what to do with.

[WaterKeeper]

Don't you hate it when the convicts start hiding out in ocean waters?

Try using a fine food like oyster eggs or perhaps some freshly hatched brine shrimp. You can isolate fry in a breeding bin that hangs on the back of your tank.

[PRDubois]

Slightly Brackish count?

[WaterKeeper]

I don't think you want brackish water for convicts. It is too alkaline and they like low pH water. If you mean using brine shrimp then you filter the saltwater off first using a brine net. Brine shrimp don't last long in freshwater but if you feed sparingly they are fine. Daphnia is another choice if you have a source to obtain them. You want the small type daphnia as the D. Magna, commonly sold, are too large for the fry to handle.

[PRDubois]

Actually they like 1 tsp sea salt per 10 gallons.

[WaterKeeper]

That's more seasoning than brackish PR. It probably gives you an SP of about 1.00003.

That is one of the thinks about FW fish. They are far more forgiving in water quality than their marine cousins. You can place African lake cichlids and Amazon cichlids in pH 7.3 tap water and never have a problem, even thought in real life the lake cichlids live in water near 10 pH while the Amazon's live in water near 4. You can also crowd a tank with many cichlids but try that with marine fish and the result is wholesale fish losses.

It is one of the biggest problems we face in the Newbie forum. People with a lot of experience in tropical fish expect marine fish to require the same degree of husbandry. Sadly, it is a major first timers mistake.

[PRDubois]

Convicts could live in toilet water if you let them.

[WaterKeeper]

Lot's of fish find a place of burial in a toilet if you care for them improperly.

[Michael]

Originally posted by ihopss
You can take the predetor out.

yep good shout, move him or them to the guppie tank and let the parents rear the young, good advice imo

[Ronny#66]

Have many preditors in there can't move them out.

[WaterKeeper]

And make sure the predators are made to register with the local police department.

[rolltide12]

Trust me you need to seperate the parents and babys from the regular fish population. I had a male and female jack dempsey mate and there aggression hightens when they feel that there fry are being threatened(they are awsome parents). I had a tank of highly agressive cichlids red terror, managuese, green terror, and midas cichlid, and had to seperate them and put the fry along with mom and dad in a seperate tank because they would not let anybody moved and the other fish stayed hemed up on one side of the tank. Trust me its not worth the hastle to raise them. Convicts despite there size are mean little guys, I have a friend that has a breeding pair and we use his larger fry as feeder fish.

[PRDubois]

If they have good places to hide the smart ones will live.

[phish guy]

the convicts will keep breeding, over and over again.

in a DT at LFS i worked at we had 3 breeding pairs in 1 aquarium. id say in the matter of a few months we had at least 13 broods of baby convicts.

[WaterKeeper]

Can you have them spaded or neutered?