convict question

[limige]

a guy at work just had a pair of convicts make some babies. being they are live bearers what can they eat when newly born?

does he have to hatch brine shrimp? i don't he'll go for that, and lfs foods good?

thanks,
mike

Mike,
baby Brine!
Also they are egg layers Not live bearers :o

Cary Gld!

[Richman]

I used to feed baby convicts with semi crushed shrimp pellets. Broke them up into small pieces and sunk them to the bottom in the immediate vicinity of the fry. Just make sure you don't overfeed and the water stays clean. Some of the other cichlids are a lot easier to feed and raise than discus.

[beta]

Convicts are excellent parents and will breed anywhere and anytime. they're young uns should take powdered flakes too..

[Jason]

buy the fry off him and feed them to your discus ;D

[DarkDiscus]

Convicts are as easy to raise as mold. They are a great started fish and are impossible to kill. I had a great pair of convicts that were literally the toughest fish I ever owned. Together they would fight off any other cichlid that came near, even fish that were much, much bigger.

Crumbled flake food is the best choice, other than the live food. I had a batch once survive on algae and scraps from their parents with no special care.

Like Cary said, they are absolutely egg layers (all cichlids are) - your friend probably didn't see the eggs and just assumed they were born live.

Like I said, great, sturdy starter fish. Are they your regular cool looking striped convicts or the pink ones?

John

[limige]

i'm pretty sure they're the striped ones.

cary, you got me, duh, same family as discus, must be egglayers!!!

silly me, yeah, he must have totally missed the eggs. he said there were like 40 of them. small or average spawn?

if anything i might get some from him for my largemouth bass ;D

thanks for the quick replies!

[DarkDiscus]

Limige,

That's a pretty small spawn for convicts. I've seen hundreds. The thing about convicts is that they spawn so early, they start out slow and keep going from there.

Tell your friend to leave the little guys in with the parents or he will have new spawns all the time until he has a billion convicts on his hands!

John