Yet another tank!! Pics.

[midmichman80]

I had been raising my convict fry in a 10g tank. They have been growing at a good pace in that tank, but I thought it was time to upgrade for them. I found a used 29g tank in my basement and had all the equipment to get it running. I have a sand substrate with some live plants in there. I am waiting for a breeding pair to form and then the rest of the fry are going as feeders for the oscar and jack dempsey. My girlfriend was nice enough to take some pictures of the new tank and she even got some with the fish showing off. Hope the pics work for you all.

 

[bunker_1]

Very nice!

 

[bitteraspects]

cute plecos.

 

[brian1973]

midmich..i have been contemplating convicts..how do i sex them?

 

[midmichman80]

Thanks all, the pleco is a bristlenose, spotted with a tall fin. Brian, sexing convicts is supposed to be easy. Size is a indicator with males generally being larger than females. Females have orange on there bellies when they mature and is more prominent during spawing times. Males also can have orange but it isn't as bright and usually only during mating. Females coloring is a bit differnt than males and I am thinking that is the easiest way to sex them. Females have black stripes with a whiter background color whereas males have the black stripes and with a darker grey background color. I have finally been able to differentiate between the two sexes in my tank, at least with a pair. All the fish are from the same spawn, yet the two largest fish are one of each, male and female. I started with 11 convict fry and let them grow out, while they grew I lost four, leaving me with seven. Out of those I hope to have at least one breeding pair and the remainder will be snacks for my oscar and jack dempsey. It seems to me that sexing the fish is real tough until they reach a good inch in size. Convicts are fun to have, I had a breeding pair years ago that spawned a couple times, but were housed with oscars and the fry didn't last long, this tank has a lot of room right now, but with a full sized mating pair of convicts it should be a nice tank for them.

 

[midmichman80]

Bitter, that pleco seemed to find his way into every picture, he's not photo shy at least .

 

[Big Vine]

Nice work...congrats on the growouts!*thumbsup2

For the most part I agree with the sexing information provided, but this I cannot agree with:

Females coloring is a bit differnt than males and I am thinking that is the easiest way to sex them. Females have black stripes with a whiter background color whereas males have the black stripes and with a darker grey background color.

Actually, I have seen many instances in which the complete opposite was true!
Aside from the bit you mentioned about the orange on the belly, coloration is not a good way for sexing these guys.

Be sure to keep us updated on them!
BV

 

[charls]

Wonderful job!*thumbsups

And brian, good luck with the convicts.*thumbsup2

 

[Helena21]

Looks really nice!

 

[midmichman80]

Thanks all, lots of patience required for these guys to grow. Now that they are in a bigger tank though, they are growing in leaps and bounds. I am still not 100% sure of their sex, but hopefully soon I can figure it out.

 

[midmichman80]

Here is a link I found about sexing convicts, this is where I got the color difference information about these guys. Although, BV, if you have had personal experience with the coloration being oposite of what this stated. I guess i have to wait a bit longer to find out. Convict Cichlid

 

[Big Vine]

Thanks for posting that link.

Females...light grey stripes contrast dramatically against their black stripes...
The males tend to be darker grey with black stripes

Although this may be true with regards to some convicts, my firsthand experiences tell me that it would be a mistake to apply this sweeping generalization to all convicts as a whole for purposes of sexing them.

Prominent orange on the belly indicates female, whereas a complete (or nearly complete, as in the case of some immature males) lack of orange indicates male.

There are some other subtleties which may or may not help in sexing these guys, but in my experience the orange on the belly (or lack thereof) is the most reliable sexing method for convicts.
BV

 

[midmichman80]

Yes BV, I have found that sexing these guys when small is too tough. Much thanks for your personal experience too. I was about to keep the two largest convicts assuming there was one male and one female because of the darker/lighter background colors. I am going to hold onto all of them longer now and hope that at least one will show some orange coloring on its side. As of right now, I have not a single convict that shows a stark difference in orange on their sides, all of them have a bit of pinkish orange on them, except the pink convict, but that comes and goes and looks more like the insides of the fish, as the skin is still transparent a bit. I have seen many full sized mating pairs of convicts and the orange spots on the bellies of the females is bright and obvious, whereas none of my convicts have that obvious orange belly. I guess more time before I can tell. I will certainly keep all updated their progress. The bigger they get, the more beautiful they are.

 

[midmichman80]

An update, still no sign of orange on any of the fish, although two of them are growing real fast and have lost their fry status in my mind. I was cleaning snails out of my other 29g tank today and tossed them into my convict tank. I grabbed about 20 and the convicts love them. They wait for the snail to poke their heads out and grab them by the head and smash their shells against the driftwood or sand in the tank. It is too cool to watch, they are smart enough to use tools. The driftwood must crack the shell of the snail and the convicts slurp the insides out. I see a bunch of empty shells at the bottom of the tank. When they were smaller I would smash some smaller snails and drop them in their tank. The convicts loved em, and now that they are big enough to bust the shells open, it is a great way for me to combat the snail population in my other tank. Gotta love fish.

 

[midmichman80]

I have finally found a female. The pink convict showed orange on it sides yesterday, but just two spots. Today, when I checked him out, she had several mores orange spots on her side and an orange streak running down her tail. I am super excited to have found a female out of the group. Now, just hope that the male will find her a suitable mate. Cheers all.