just leave them alone... if you want you could feed them crushed flake food... or artemia... if any of my baby convicts survive the other fish i give away the young ones to the petshops... since i don't want them to overrun my tanks... if you want you could put them in thier own tank and let them parent them themselves... i feed my other fry daphna, brine shrimp flake and OSI shrimp pellets...
I have 3 Convicts, 1 Pleco, and 1 Stonefish. I just got my Stonefish to actually take care of the breeding that my convicts do. I have 2 female convict Cichlids and 1 male. The 1 female actually made friends with the Pleco considering she doesn't have another male to pair with. If you want to keep your fry it depends on what kind of other fish you have, how many caves/hiding places you have, and how many convict Cichlids you have. As of now this if probably the 3rd or 4th time my convicts have had babies. I have about 35-45 babies and they are getting BIG. This is why I got my Stonefish, I can't have 30-40 Cichlids in my 29 gallon tank!
However if you are serious about having you Cichlids mate, be patient. They NEED caves otherwise the fry will be eaten by other fish once they hatch. Also, if you are serious about keeping the fry and having them grow big and strong I suggest either putting them in a hatchery tank(separate small tank) or having lot's of places where they can hide. I recently bought 2 pieces of drift wood for my Pleco and in coincidence the babies love to feed and hide in it, thus they are getting big.
Remember, be patient and you can tell male from female by: Female(Most) having red or orange spots near their belly and Male(most) having a bump on their face more like a hump. Do some searching on the net and you can find some pictures.
i hearing that it that 3 to 4 days for the eggs to hatch if they dont them what i hAVE COVICT THAT LAY EGGS TWICE ALREADY AND NONE HAVE HATCH INFACT THEY THE FEMALE HAVE EATING THEM IS WHAT GOING ON IN MY TANK I HAVE DIVER IN THE TANK MALE ON ON SDE FEMALE AND EGGS ON THE SAME SIDE WHAT AM I DOING WRONG NEED HELP
I have covict that lay some eggs i kept the male away i think the female fish eat the eggs or they put them in their mouth untill they hatch or they just keep eating them i need to know what's going on in my tank i have covict and demsy in the tank
Well, If the covict chiclids are mouth incubaters then you COULD take the fry away from them and put the fry inside a small setup aquarium and feed them crushed flakes and brine shrimp. This is what I have learned but I have not done this myself.
I had a pair of tilapia which are mouth incubators, and as soon as I removed the male who was harassing the female who had fry in her mouth she let them out. There was a swarm of at least 100. I netted about half and put them in another tank to ensure their safety and it was a good move because the female ended up eating the rest that night. Now I have a tank with only tilapia and mosquito fish fry and I feed them crumbled up Tetra flake food.
i'm going to start taking the fry out of my severums mouth and into one of those breeder net things... i just got one... but i think the angels or other fish can still kill them thru the net...
these guys are IMO the easiest to breed just set up a piece of slate spread over 2 rocks to form a cave and walla. the female will cover the underside of the slate with eggs then the males comes and ferilizes them. as soon as the eggs turn white (fertilized) remove the parents. i had a pair and they layed eggs almost every month it was crazy.
Oh getwithit, i hope you haven't awoken the sleeping beast, lol. Don't worry if you don't understand the reference i'm making... i just haven't seen this poster for awhile and was enjoying the silence.
I had 2 diskus that laid eggs every 2 weeks on a rock. They would tend to them and eventually after a week ate them every time. The local aquarium store said that the ones that turned white were infected by fungus but I don't know. Every week after they laid and took great care of the eggs they would eat em.
ok a lesson in breeding convicts, the convicts will take care of the babies ,and eat the eggs that are infected with bacteria or fungus, you need to watch carefully the female and the male will both care for and guard the eggs what you need to do is create an area in the tank where the babies can be safe, buy some anacaris, three or four clumps of it and put them near the nesting site, this will give the babies a place to hide and something to eat. when you see the fry out and around the anacaris what you need to do is put them in a separate tank or put them in a net breeder with the anacaris as they will hide in it also gives them something to eat. the babies will prefer eating brine shrimp. convicts are not i repeat not mouth brooders. if the mother or father feel threatened they will eat the babies, also watch because the mother convict may move the babies she will suck them into her mouth and then spit them out in a place in the tank where she feels they will be safest.
(anacaris is a hardy plant) most pet stores carry this in bunches.
Hope this helps
Brandon
