Is this a Convict???

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akraini5

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
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Mar 24, 2014
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upload.jpgHello everyone, a few days ago I bought a 55 gal. poorly care for African Cichlid tank that already had a few fish in it. I was told they where all Malawi Mbuna African cichlids as well as convicts, the convicts where all about 1 1/2 inches long and I have sense rehomed all of them. My question is whether or not this fish ( Picture attached) is some type of Mbuna cichlid as I was told or a large adult convict? ( I am leaning toward him being a convict) I have been searching and searching the internet looking at pictures and can not find anything that looks like him except a convict... he is about 5 inches long, very mellow ( As mellow as Cichlids can be..lol) apparently they have all been living together for the last year and a half... My husband and kids have already fallen in love with this fish and they named him "Herman" so despite all warning and horror stories I have read online I am curious if anyone has managed to keep a singe male convict coexisting with African Mbuna Cichlids? I know I would have to find a way to feed him separately as their diets are different but if this is a convict I would really like to hear from experienced Cichlid parents out there about this type of situation.....
 
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Well, without a picture I would give it a 18.56% chance of being a convict. :)
 
Sorry guys! lol.... I am desperately trying to get the picture to upload... :)
 
Picture!

OK I got the picture fixed, had to log out and back in to get it to upload.... :)
 
If you feed a high quality pellet food such as NLS or similar you should be able to feed the same food to both your mbuna and your convict. Just make sure that the mbuna don't eat all the food before the convict can get to it.
 
As long as he isn't paired it should be fine. Spawning would be an issue because of aggression while protecting the babies. But I've seen plenty of mbuna tanks with convicts do fine


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Well, I raised Convicts for years, bred about a couple hundred & it doesn't look like one that looks like this one. The stripes are different


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Doesn't look like a Convict


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It's not a high quality convict by any means, but it is one none the less. There isn't as much barring as you'd typically see, however everything else is right in regards to body shape, coloration, ect.


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The bars seem a bit odd, but facially it looks like a convict.


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I'd agree about the body shape, but the barring really lead me to believe that this was a species of the same genus or something


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I'd agree about the body shape, but the barring really lead me to believe that this was a species of the same genus or something


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You do realize there is only 3 or 4 recognized species in Amatitlania right? Nigrofasciata, Siquia, Kanna and Coatepeque.

The only other fish I believe it could possibly be is Siquia, however they typically aren't that dark.

90% of the pictures you see online are of young convicts with heavy barring. When convicts get older they get darker/lighter and have fewer bars.

Additionally you have to keep in mind that there are also the marbled convicts that have very irregular barring. Typically marbled, pink, and standard convicts are crossed together allot.




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No I didn't know all of that. All I do know is that I owned & bred Convicts for a few years & though they all didn't come out exactly the same, none looked like this one. Thanks for the insight though


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No I didn't know all of that. All I do know is that I owned & bred Convicts for a few years & though they all didn't come out exactly the same, none looked like this one. Thanks for the insight though


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You probably also didn't have any that were older than 2-3 years old?


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Actually I did, & like you said some of them had very little barring, some had defined barring and a couple came out Albino as the grandfather was Albino.


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Actually I did, & like you said some of them had very little barring, a couple came out Albino as the grandfather was Albino.


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Yep that's exactly what I was talking about. Most of your convicts that come from the pet stores have very muddy/mixed genetics and it's really hard to know what you'll end up with in the long run.

Probably the exact case with the OP fish.


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Lol, I had some very good looking Convicts might I add. The grandmother was beautiful with strong barring. I don't know where the pair came from, as they were given to me. I keep Africans these days particularily Victorians.


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