Life Of Convicts - Convict Breeding Log.

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Hey there,


I was thinking about not putting this log on here because I know breeding convicts isn't a horrible diffcult, but I thought it would be fun to put it on here anyways. I will tell you all about what has happened already since I got them, up until the recent day. I will update this daily.

January 17th, 2009.
Day 1: Convicts bought from LFS and floated for about 30 minutes, then release. They took a liking to each other very fast and took over the tank fast aswell. My gourami got very angry with the new Male convict, so he was removed into my 20G Community Setup.

January 18th, 2009.
Day 2: Did a 30% water change and started feeding more oftenly throughout the day with freeze dried blood worms, then before lights out I feed them high quality flake food. They seemed like they have paired off and are now taking over the tank. A flower pot was added for a place for them to lay eggs.

January 19th, 2009.
Day 3: Did another 30% water change, continued my feeding pattern, and raised the temp. slightly. Female's egg laying tube has become very visible and will be expecting some eggs within a week hopefully.



The tank is still full of fish, a dozen or so mollies, 4 cories, 1 CAE, 3 Black Skirt Tetras, and 2 Endlers. I know there will problem be some deaths during the Convicts breeding period, but i'm not to worried about any of the fish expect the cories and the mollies. My CAE and the tetras and the guppies stay to themselves on the right side of the tank, which the convicts own the other half. The mollies and cories just don't understand and might get injuried. I'm going to try to remove the cories, but I have no where to put the mollies. Only thing I can do here is let nature be it's way.

I'm not doing this to sell the convicts either, since I know I most likely won't get a thing for them, I just thought it would be fun to watch the convicts be parents and watch the fry grow. Watching nature take it's course. My LFS is running low on convicts though, so they said they might start buying from me to be able to say they were home tank breed and raised.

I still have to add the sleeve over my intake of my filter, i'll also give some updates on water parameters tomorrow. I will also get some pictures up on here of the Convicts. I would now, but it's late and I have school tomorrow. Like I said, this will be a daily updated log, so


Keep intouch.

 

[kribensis12]

Sounds great so far. I feel bad for the other fish in the tank. You have no idea how vicious theese fish can get once the eggs are laid.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I have read a lot of stories about Convicts taking down fish x3 their size during breeding. I honestly don't have a choice for most of the fish. I can remove the CAE to my cichlid tank and see how he does in there, remove my 3 Black Skirt tetras and my Endlers and my 4 Cories into my 20G Community. I have no room for the mollies though.

I tried to sell them to my LFS, but a lot of them were screwed up babies and have some spine issues and bad gills. I wasn't really expecting them to live this long anyways.

I'll try to remove everyone tomorrow besides the mollies. I do feel bad for them, but I have no where to put them. I rather have those convicts any day though compared to the mollies, like I said i'm going to let nature do what it has to and see what happens.

 

[SWerner13]

No pics?

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

January, 20th, 2009. Updates.

Sorry guys, I got held up with studing for my school finals and didn't get to a lot of stuff today.


The convicts have really paired off and are now patrolling the tank has a team, not singlely. There is a lot more sand in the flower pot I set in there for them. They're also 2-3 pits around the pot were i'm guessing the babies will be placed there.

I've continued the water changes and the feed habits as before. I have removed all the fish besides the mollies, sadly I have no place to put them. I moved my Gold gourami, 3 Black skirt tetras, 2 endlers, and 4 cories into the 20G with my 2 rams, 1 kuhlii loach, 3 red-eyed tetras, and 2 neon tetras. Might seem a little over stocked, but I do 2 water changes a week on that tank. Water parameters are fine on that tank. I also moved my CAE with my cichlids, hopefully they get along.

Tomorrow I will be less busy, since I get out early because it's the end of my test, I get out at 1:35p.m., normally 3:00p.m. I will test the water tomorrow and make my sleeve that will go over my intake on my filter, i'm just going to sew two filter pads I have together to fit snug over the intake filter already on the intake tube.


I will take some pictures tomorrow, since I will have time, I will also make a short video aswell displaying where they are planning on breeding, so you can see the setup. Expecting some eggs sometime this week.



Keep intouch, and sorry about the late pictures.

 

[kribensis12]

It's okay. Its good you actually study ( i DONT). You dont need to tie 2 pads together, cut a hole in a pad and slide the intake in it. Thats what i do. It's funny, my convicts did not make any pits when breeding last time. I dont know why, i thought it was kind of odd.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

January 21st, 2009. Eggs Anyone?

Got home, at 2:00pm, I took my water parameters, they all check out fine.

pH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10

I had somethings to do at around 6:30pm and left then, they looked like they were going to spawn very soon, but haven't yet. When I got home around 8:00pm, there they were just going to town on the lower part of my flower pot I sat in there for them. They dug a pit right under it so the fry can just fall straight into it. I couldn't count the eggs because everytime 3 secounds the male will block my view protecting the eggs, so I kept losing count . I'm just going to wait till they hatch and count from there.

I was pretty excited too, it has not even been a week since i've gotten them, they must of liked the condtions. People said it is as easy as adding two convicts in some water, but this was really quick, quicker then my mollies. I'm excited to watch them be parents.

No deaths yet on fish, happy about that aswell, but once the eggs hatch, there prob. will be.



I did snap a video, but i'm leaving to a friends for the night, so i'll post it tomorrow sometime. No school because I got done with finals today. I didn't do mega great on them, but I passed haha.

Video will be up tomorrow, they are still spawning at the moment too, so no point of counting eggs anyways.

It's okay. Its good you actually study ( i DONT). You dont need to tie 2 pads together, cut a hole in a pad and slide the intake in it. Thats what i do. It's funny, my convicts did not make any pits when breeding last time. I dont know why, i thought it was kind of odd.

I just suck some of the pad into the little guard that was on it already, it works good, thanks for the idea. Yeah, I saw like 2-3 pits they could of picked from so I knew they were getting close, wonder why your's didn't do it this time.

 

[kribensis12]

CONGRATS! Can't wait for the video! I have had angels spawn the day ig ot them, sometime's, a fish just has to spawn!

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

January 23rd, 2009. Hmmm.....

Sorry for no update yesterday, was really business. Also, I haven't gotten the video posted up yet, so sorry about that aswell.


Today I went in and checked on the eggs, and over half were gone, I didn't see any fry either so i'm guessing they didn't get fertilized or they got eaten, something like that.

There is around 30-40 ish left still, they are getting darker and the female is still protecting them well, not even letting the male get over by them. Hopefully I will soon see some fry tomorrow, it was 2 days today, and they normally take 48-72 hours. I'm just going to keep hoping.

I will try to get the video up as soon as I can, which will problly be tomorrow.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

January 28th, 2009. Um... Problem?

Well, all the eggs are gone and there are no fry, that I know of. Do convicts eat their own eggs under certain circumstances? I know the tank has a lot of other fish and i'm wondering if they ate the eggs because they were scared of the other fish eating them. Some of my mollies are actaully the same size of my convicts.

I'm going to try to move all the mollies and give them to my biology teacher. He got a 55G about a month ago and is pretty empty of fish. I think they would like it in there.

I have to find out what i'm doing with the rest of the fish, i'm thinking rest of my cories in my 20G, Tetras in my 20G, Endlers in my 20G, CAE in the 60G Cichlid tank. I think i'm pretty set, hopefully their next patch will actually be fish .

Keep intouch guys.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

January 29th, 2009. Set and ready to go for the secound Round. LD

Updates!!


Well I removed all the fish, besides 8 mollies i'm giving to my biology teacher. I removed 3 black skirt tetras, 3 cories, 2 endlers, 1 CAE, 3 mollies.

All of them were very easy to get out, besides the cories and the CAE. Those 4 guys took about an hour just to get them out. When I netted the CAE, he almost pulled the net out of my hand, did not realize how much power they have, he is very old though so I expected some kind of strength out of him.

The CAE has made a happy new family member in my 60G cichlid tank, all the other fish are happy in my 20G with all there old friends.

I'm going to talk to my teacher tomorrow and most likely bring him the mollies Monday or Tuesday morning.

I kind of redid the tank from before since I had to remove some stuff to get the CAE and cories. I also redid my 60G a bit so I am actually quite happy about that tank, and hopefully once my 55G clears up and should look good aswell.


This weekend I will start my normally things that I did last time to promote breeding with my convicts. Frequent water changes, more feeding of different foods, ect.




I will be continuing to update this as soon as I possiblely can. Hopefully this time around my eggs will turn into actually fish, and not get eaten.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

February 05, 2009. - Updates!

Well, the convicts finally have the tank to themselves. There are absolutely no other fish in their, besides them.

Hopefully this time around I actually get some fry. The females laying tube is really coming out now, i'm expecting a laying very soon. The only problem is that it has seemed like they have picked one of two spots I expect, which both I cannot see if they lay eggs or not. I'm just going to wait it out and see where they actually lay.


Tonight I started doing my habits for promoting breeding today. I did around a 40-50% water change today, and I have been feeding them more frequently a varity of blood worms, high-quality flakes, veggies, shrimp pellets, and cichlid floating balls.


I'll keep you people looking at this thread updated as much as I can. Hopefully I can actually get some pictures or video up showing them.



Thanks for keeping intouch with this thread.

 

[kribensis12]

Convict's may eat their eggs. It isnt common, but they may. Just give them some practice.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Feb. 9th, 2009. - Some Video Action. Eggs!

The convicts laid some more eggs this time, and the tank should be perfect for them for some actual fry.

No other fish in the tank, filter intake tube is cover so no fry are lost, java moss added. Should be perfect setup.


Well they laid some eggs either saturday, or sunday. Don't know for sure sorry.

Some of the eggs are turned solid white, expecting them to drop off soon. Other eggs are turning dark, which i'm hoping for some fry to drop tomorrow, or wensday.

Enough talking, let's get onto the video.

Convicts :: ConvictsEggsFeb082009.flv video by FishCrazyBenBOMB - Photobucket

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

February 11th, 2009. - Oh My God, They are Movin'!

Well I checked on my eggs today, and they were all gone. I was wondering if they have hatched. They made a pit right under the egg laying part and I saw no wigglers. I became discouraged and walked away and bit and looked back at the tank, and I saw my female convict going under the pot, so I looked under there and it was dark so I got this small powerful light to point under there.

There was a huge pile of eggs looking like they will hatch in the next few hours, and some already hatched and wiggling. She moved the eggs because they even hatched, I thought that was pretty cool.

I'm excited now, hopefully the fry will survive long, and I will hopefully get a good hatch percent rate. I started my brineshrimp hatchery tonight and in a couple days when they are hatched, I will just throw them all in their for the convict fry to snack on once they are big enough, I might just wait till they get bigger, I don't know.

I'm happy though. Haha

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

March 2nd, 2009 - It's been awhile, here are some updates.

Well from my last post, all those wigglers were eaten, unless they all died which I doubt. I moved things around and just waited for awhile to see what would happen. I had to switch some lights around on all my tanks so now this aquarium with the convicts in it has the crappy fixture that has the pinkish purple million year old light. Can't see very well now, waiting for some money so I can buy a new bulb.

I got a nice flashlight though and looked down where the mother and father have been chillin after the move. I saw atleast 100-200 wigglers I bet. Mom has been taking care of them well so fair. Hopefully they will actually grow to the free swimming stage, and continue on from there. I've also stopped doing the extra feeding and water changes (promotions to breeding) because they are breeding a little short then every 2 weeks. So no need for extra work when they are breeding fine on their own, like I wanted things to plan out anyways.

I'm planning on feeding most of the fry to my other tanks. Before I do so, i'm going to contact my lfs and see what price they would give me in cash or store-credit. If they do buy some i'll most likely get store-credit because they end up giving you more then they would in cash, plus I buy all my fish stuff from them, or online so it would be a plus having store-credit there.

Besides all that, nothing else really new. Once I get that bulb i'll most likely make a video/take some photos. If I find out it won't be for awhile, i'll just switch some lights around just to snap some shots, then put them back.

Thanks for all the help guys, and thanks to whoever is taking their time to keep intouch with this log. Feel free to leave any comments you may have.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Sunday, March 08, 2009. - Better luck this time around.

Well like I said in my last post, I had wigglers.

Now 6 days later, they are still in their little pile where the mom has been putting them. Now though, instead of just sitting there wiggling, they have gotten a little bigger and they are starting to swim up a little bit, but then fall back down. After about 4 laying of eggs, ect. I think the mom and dad finally figured it out. Most wigglers are still alive aswell.

Hopefully they will grow larger, big enough to atleast feed to my other fish, or even better, sell to my lfs.

 

[mike47517]

i doubt you will be able to sell convicts to your lfs. but they will make greaat feeder fish when they get a little bigger

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

i doubt you will be able to sell convicts to your lfs. but they will make greaat feeder fish when they get a little bigger

Actually, if you take time and read through my log, it'll say that my lfs is low on convicts and sells them at a higher price then other places, so they will buy them. They are also looking for a better quality of stock compared to what they have.

Before you make comments about what you doubt will happen, please read ahead so you don't look bad.

It was my very first post, by the way.

 

[mike47517]

ok mybad. oh and i dont feel like i made myself look bad i just dont want to waste my time reading something that will not help me.