What are convicts worth?

[Oohitsae]

A friend of mine is getting ready to leave for boot camp so I told her I'd take care of her fry tank while she's gone. Right now there are about 30-50 small fry/juvies in there and it's only a 20L so I know that some will have to be sold before she is done with all her training and gets stationed somewhere, but I don't know what they'd be worth.

I plan to grow them out a bit more, maybe to around 3/4-1" long before selling, so theres still plenty of time to figure this out, but I want to be prepared.

I know that they are some of the most prolific, if not the most prolific cichlids out there, so they are pretty readily available and probably not worth too much. but what are they worth?
My LFS only takes fish as donations, unless they are something hard to get, so I'd prefer to sell through classifieds, on ebay, or AB...but is it even worth it??

 

[Freakgecko91]

Maybe $1 ea at the very best, who knows though

 

[HUKIT]

In the past I couldn't give them away. Try a ad on Craiglist asking $1 each and see if someone bites. I wouldn't bother with eBay or Aquabid due to the shipping cost.

 

[CalebZachary]

Yeah I have a batch of fry, gonna try CL at $1 each.

 

[Oohitsae]

Yeah $1 was what I was figuring too

 

[Oohitsae]

While we are on the subject, what's the best food for them? Any tips on getting them to grow fast? Temp, water chemistry, etc.?

They aren't my first cichlids, I've got Bolivian and German blue rams, along with a trio of apisto trifasciata and angels too, but these are my first fry and I want to do it right.

Picked them up a couple hours ago and the smallest are about the size of 2wk old guppy fry so I imagine they are quite young and don't want to do anything to damage them. The older guys are about 1/2-3/4" so I'm not as worried about them.

This isn't my first time dealing with egg hatched fry either so I've got a ton of live food cultures on stand by 24/7 if that helps

 

[Mogurako]

NLS Grow, then NLS .5mm Small Fish formula, then NLS Thera-A 1mm sinking pellet.

 

[Big Tex]

how long will she be gone? and do you have the breeding pair? if you do, and shes gonna be gone more than a month you WILL have more fry to raise LOL i literally have to give mine away or just let them get sucked up into the filter, my pair has about 30-50 fry each month or so and im always over whelmed, i have 2 fry tanks as of now with con fry.

 

[Oohitsae]

Thanks!

 

[Oohitsae]

how long will she be gone? and do you have the breeding pair? if you do, and shes gonna be gone more than a month you WILL have more fry to raise LOL i literally have to give mine away or just let them get sucked up into the filter, my pair has about 30-50 fry each month or so and im always over whelmed, i have 2 fry tanks as of now with con fry.

Good question! When my exhusband did all his training it was about 6 months before he was able to be stationed. I think she'll be about 4-5 if she decides to do airborne on top of her AIT.
But luckily she sold the breeding pair off after this last batch. Guess she just didn't feel comfortable selling the fry to random people at such a small size so I got stuck with them lol

Luckily I have a decent amount of space open right now and she gave me a tank for them as well, so as long as I can get rid of them all before they reach sexual maturity I should be okay

 

[Big Tex]

Good question! When my exhusband did all his training it was about 6 months before he was able to be stationed. I think she'll be about 4-5 if she decides to do airborne on top of her AIT.
But luckily she sold the breeding pair off after this last batch. Guess she just didn't feel comfortable selling the fry to random people at such a small size so I got stuck with them lol

Luckily I have a decent amount of space open right now and she gave me a tank for them as well, so as long as I can get rid of them all before they reach sexual maturity I should be okay

That's right, they're pretty fish though, only thing is they breed early at a small size so I'd do 2 for a $1 our some kind of deal if you really want to get rid of them fast.

 

[Oohitsae]

Yeah, they are really pretty! I always wanted a pair because of how cool they look but after hearing about how prolific they are I decided not to. I may have to keep a single female from these fry if they sex out before they are all sold.

2 for $1 sounds like a good idea. I may try to start at $1 and if I don't get any interest, or if interest dies off before I am amble to sell them all then do 2 for 1 or more.

 

[Big Tex]

Yeah, they are really pretty! I always wanted a pair because of how cool they look but after hearing about how prolific they are I decided not to. I may have to keep a single female from these fry if they sex out before they are all sold.

2 for $1 sounds like a good idea. I may try to start at $1 and if I don't get any interest, or if interest dies off before I am amble to sell them all then do 2 for 1 or more.

Though could keep multiple females in a tank with little to no conflict and they also have the red blotch on the side as well it would make for a pretty tank

 

[Oohitsae]

I suppose I could do that too, but knowing my luck I would probably accidentally keep a male and end up with more fry.

I think I'll stick with my apistos and rams lol

 

[Big Tex]

I suppose I could do that too, but knowing my luck I would probably accidentally keep a male and end up with more fry.

I think I'll stick with my apistos and rams lol

Well that's not always a bad thing, you'll know when you get a male in there, the pair will terrorize the rest. Though you don't have to raise the fry they'll just get eaten up, the females are sweethearts IMO mine greets me all the time when I walk in my bedroom and she's the friendliest on the pair, the most playful as well. Just my $0.02

 

[Oohitsae]

Yeah, I just don't want to have to deal with that terror, I prefer peaceful tanks, well besides my apistos, but they aren't as aggressive as I hear convicts are.


Last question, what size should these guys be before I try selling them? The older guys are growing fast, I've got one that's about 1.25" and the rest around 2/3-3/4"
The younger guys are still only about 1/8" so I've got a while on them yet, but I'd like to be able to move the older ones out before the younger ones have to be moved to a grow-out