Bigger tank help breeding chances?

[Rychean]

Good morning!
Today, I should be putting my pair of convicts from their current 10G home into their new 30G. I'm almost positive they are a male/female pair, but in the 10G, the male just chased around the female, but no eggs.
In the new tank, there will be a LOT more hiding places. I'm also making sure they have some clay pot surface to lay eggs (on their current pot, the bottom is broken out).
My question - will the bigger tank/more hiding places potentially make the female more willing to breed? I'd like them to, and I don't want to add any other fish unless these two absolutely refuse to breed.
Thanks for your insights!

 

[Andy Sager]

Good morning!
Today, I should be putting my pair of convicts from their current 10G home into their new 30G. I'm almost positive they are a male/female pair, but in the 10G, the male just chased around the female, but no eggs.
In the new tank, there will be a LOT more hiding places. I'm also making sure they have some clay pot surface to lay eggs (on their current pot, the bottom is broken out).
My question - will the bigger tank/more hiding places potentially make the female more willing to breed? I'd like them to, and I don't want to add any other fish unless these two absolutely refuse to breed.
Thanks for your insights!

To answer your question, NO (unfortunately.)
I've bred many pairs of convicts in a 10 gal tank so the tank size is not the issue. You can create enough hiding places in a 10 gal so the chances are A) they are not a male and female, B) the supposed female is not old enough to breed, or C) you are witnessing the typical courtship of South American Cichlids. It's not pretty. In fact, most of my breeders would not be chosen as fish to keep in a show aquarium. Missing lips, battle scars, disfiguremnts are all normal for breeding cichlids. The thing to figure out is why they didn't breed in the 10. Water temp? conditioning problems? wrong gender? No good spawning places? You need to answer these issues to get to the bottom of this.
FYI: If these are in fact a male and female, adding more fish to the 30 will probably be a disaster for the new comers. Breeders should be kept to themselves or separated and kept one per tank to avoid any spawning disputes.

I'm sure this wasn't what you wanted to hear but I hope it helped