Feeding Convict Fry

[lauriecan]

Hello all,

I have my first batch of convict fry swimming in my tank. I've put in a plexiglass divider so they're safe from the other cichlids in my tank. I have a 125 gallon, so the fry, mom, and pop have about 1/3 of the tank to themselves. My question is when should I begin feeding them. They've been free swimming for about three days, but I can't tell if they're eating. Mom and dad go up and snatch food, but I'm not sure of whether they are giving the food to the kiddies. I'm including a video, so you can see that there are a lot of mouths to feed. Should I begin feeding them crushed goldfish flakes or just wait a little longer? Thanks for any advice you can give.

Pictures by lauriecann - Photobucket

 

[IvanMike]

feed mom and dad cichlid flakes - they will crush these up and feed them to the fry. Some java moss in the tank works wonders as the fry will eat all kinds of micro-organisms off of it. You could feed them newly hatched brine shrimp for a while - but this gets to be a pain. I have always had excellent results crushing up cichlid flakes near the fry in the water (make sure you have no soap or anything else on your hands - and be prepared for mom and dad to attack you like mad!). You can even soak and crush up floating cichlid pellets with good results. convicts eat readily.

 

[pictuslover23]

Parents just eat flakes or what their babies are eating. Ive found that crushing up cichlid flakes, spirulina pellets, an frozen baby brine shrimp into a paste then mixing it with tank water and putting it into a turkey baster works really well to feed the fry as they usually don't swim near the surface.