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Convcit Breeding Log

3K views 24 replies 6 participants last post by  BarbH 
#1 ·
I decided to start this thread as a place to keep track of the breeding of my pink convicts from prespawning to behaviors, thru the raising of their fry. For those who are interested in following along I will be making updates every few days or so. For pictures of the future mom and dad they can be found in the aquarium tab under my convict tank.

Here is what has been happening so far...
8/3 I purchased my pink convict pair, at the store they already had babies in with them that was born on 7/1 according to the pet store. The happy couple where placed into their new home, where they stayed mostly hidden among the caves and under the sponge filter most of the time.

8/8 The male has continued to stay hidden most of the time, especially anytime movement can be seen any where near the tank. Decided to try adding some dither fish to see if could make him more comfortable, 8 zebra danios. Within hours noticed the male starting to come out more into the open and not hiding as much under the leaves of the fake plants.

8/12 Have started to see the beginning of prespawning and mating behavior. The female has started to color up more, the orange on her belly starting to become more intense, also along her fins have started to see gold in the finnage near the body, and also along the edges of the fins starting to see a blue green color that can be seen when the lighting hits it a certain way. Have also seen the male and female starting to follow each other around and swimming together.

8/14 Have started to notice along the edges of the males fins the same blue coloration that I have been seeing in the female. Also the coloring in the females finnage has increased even more.

8/16 Can now see the females breeding tube, and beginning to see what I believe to also be the males breeding tube. Have started to see them also start to move gravel around.
 
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#2 ·
8/19 Female's breeding tube is definitly showing. Have observed the female flaring her gills now at the male. Female is also starting to spend alot of time in one of the caves. She will come out every once in awhile and came out for feeding this morning, but spends most of the time in what is her favorite cave at the moment. Have noticed that the female is also starting to look a little plump around the middle. Expecting for her to lay eggs now pretty soon.
 
#3 ·
If she's spending a lot of time in her cave she probably already has eggs in there.:)
 
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#4 ·
8/20 Houston, we have eggs :-D She is still coming out of the cave for moments and her breeding tube is still showing. Anytime I try to look in the cave when she is out of it she comes back and hovers in the front looking at me. I am thinking that the eggs where layed this morning. Hopefully will be seeing wigglers by Monday or Tuesday.
 
#6 ·
Congrats!

Convicts might be common but that doesn't mean they are not still fun to breed. Your setup looks good for them be sure to post pictures. My midas pair have also began courting and I believe they will be laying eggs any day now.
 
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#7 ·
Will definitly be taking pictures as they allow me. I haven't seen pink convicts around my area much, and the only other place that seems to have them often is petsmart, so might be lucky in being able to take the fry to some of the other LFS that buy from local breeders. If not there are other options that I have,including the fact that my angels in my other tank would enjoy in doing some hunting, I never see any of the platy fry that are born in that community tank.
 
#9 ·
8/22 The eggs that had been in the orginal cave are no longer there. A couple of days ago while the female was guarding the eggs they also dug a new pit within one of the broken flower pots that I used. I am wondering if they might have moved the wigglers to a new location. Will have to wait and see if any fry appear.
 
#10 ·
She probably did move them. Mine always moves her eggs once they're wrigglers. She places them in the crevices of a rock and clears a pit below the rock of all gravel down to the glass. That way if the wrigglers fall of the rock (as they always seem to do) she can pick them up easily from the glass bottom and spit them back onto the rock. Watch yours closely to see where she hangs out. She'll look like she's hunting through the gravel. Most likely she'll be looking for stragglers. Keep us posted!
 
#12 ·
My midas ate their eggs too. They are currently separated. But it looks like my cubans are about to spawn so that's good. Hopefully your cons will get it right next time.
 
#13 ·
I have the cons together still and they have been swimming around with each other showing some of the prespawning behaviors that they had before. The female has been also coloring up again. So we will see what happens in the next few weeks or so. Hopefully things go well with your cubans spawning.
 
#18 ·
Thanks :) During the first batch the tank was finishing its cycling process and ended up carrying out a water change before the eggs had a chance to hatch. Tank is cylcled now so will be able to put the water change for a few days now. They have also had more time to settle into this tank, so hopefully they will settle into parenting again. Will keep the updates coming and as I can will also post pictures. Where the eggs are at I can barely see them and it is not at a good angle for trying to get any pictures worth any detail. Figure by this time next week will have a better idea of what is going on and what their success will be looking like.
 
#19 ·
9/4 It looks like we have moved from the eggs stage to wigglers. Seeing some movement from what looks still looks like the eggs. Female is still protecting her cave and the male is guarding their territory very well. Definilty both of them do not like it when I try to get a better look of what is going on :-D
 
#20 ·
9/5 Definitly have made it to the wiggler stage, most of the however look like they have fallen off the flower pot and I can see them from the bottom glass moving between the glass and the gravel. Don't know if I should be concerned or not, but figure right now will let nature take its course. Here a few pictures that I just took.
 

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#21 ·
Hey, I recently had a pair of convicts lay eggs. I originally had about 80 fry but its been about a week and a half and I am down to about 30 or 40. They are getting bigger pretty quick. My question is do you leave the parents in with the fry? When do you separate parents from the fry?

I am currently using a divider with various bigger fish on one side of the tank and the convicts w/ fry on the other. Dont want to disrupt anything - but should I move the fry or parents to the other side when things are ready? Not really sure - thanks!
 
#22 ·
I am new with convicts myself, but from the reading that I have done there a couple different views of how long to keep the parents and fry together. Some say to remove them early, but I have also seen people recommend removing the fry when the parents get ready to spawn again. Usually once the pair starts a new spawn they will view the previous spawn as something to protect their new spawn from, instead of the fry that they were raising.
 
#23 ·
I am new with convicts myself, but from the reading that I have done there a couple different views of how long to keep the parents and fry together. Some say to remove them early, but I have also seen people recommend removing the fry when the parents get ready to spawn again. Usually once the pair starts a new spawn they will view the previous spawn as something to protect their new spawn from, instead of the fry that they were raising.
I agree with BarbH on when to remove the fry. I have some extensive experience with breeding convicts. First by choice but then I couldn't stop the action. I had 2 pairs. They only became aggresive when they were getting ready to spawn. It was at that point I would remove the fry to another tank.
 
#24 ·
9/9 We have made it from the wiggler stage to the free swimming stage. Not exactly sure of how many fry, but it looks like most of the have made it so far. Came home tonight to find them swimming around the gravel with the parents keeping watch. Turned off the lights and 15 minutes later all back in their cave grouped together. Will try to get some pictures this weekend.
 
#25 ·
9/11 Babies are swimming all over the tank now and are grazing off of the algae the has been growing in the tank. Mom and dad are standing guard over the babies and if I get to close to the glass they will rush at me. Checked at one of the local stores today when I was out and they will take the babies when they get big enough as long as they have enough room in their tank. Here are some pictures that I have gotten of these little guys swimming around.
 

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