Tunish305 wants to know:
I have a 29 gallon tank.
Should i just get 2 fish a male and a female?
How many hinding places do i need?
Do i need plastic or live plants?
Do i need a heater?
What should the temperature be?
Thanks in advance i know its a lot of question.
I have a 29 gallon tank.
Should i just get 2 fish a male and a female?
How many hinding places do i need?
Do i need plastic or live plants?
Do i need a heater?
What should the temperature be?
Thanks in advance i know its a lot of question.
July 14th, 2009 at 5:50 am
The best thing to do is to get a number of them say 6 or so and let them mature together. You will probably get a pair who has the right “chemistry” out the group. Convicts are great to breed because they don’t require much, they pretty much do everything on their own. Just keep the water clean, do plenty of partial water changes, and keep them well fed and they’ll do the rest.
As for your other questions, have plenty of rocks for them to hide in. Use plastic plants because they’ll shred live plants. You need a heater set 76-80 degrees.
One thing, once you have a pair, you should remove the other convicts because the pair will get very aggressive and may kill them.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
a 29 gallon tank should be fine, and you might want at least 3 or 4 convict cichlids to ensure you find a good mate. You don’t need too many hiding places I’d give it at least 3 though, and plastic plants are just fine. I don’t have a heater in my tank (I have pink/black convicts as well) and my fish are doing great! Just make sure the water sits out over night and reaches room temp before putting the fish in, and once you buy the fish DON’T just open the bag and pour in the fish! You need to put them in the water while they are still in the bag for about 10 minutes. You do that because the temperature in their bag may be different than the temperature in your tank, and even something as small as a 3 degree temperature change can put them into shock. So leave the bag in until the water in the bag is about the same temp. as the water in the tank, and then you can release them into the tank. Luckily you chose a very easy fish to breed, mine have babies about every 2 weeks. Hope that helped. Good Luck, and don’t forget they need bubbles to breathe
July 18th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Yes, I would start with two. Live plants are good for your tank, but fake will do! Yes, you do need a heater, temp should be 76-80* for most tropical fish. As far as hiding places, it can be whatever you like or as many as you like!
July 21st, 2009 at 3:29 pm
All you need is 1 male and 1 female,if you get more than that once they pair up you will have major aggression problems with the parents trying to protect their fry from the other fish.
Convicts are one of the easiest cichlids to breed and will soon produce more fry than you know what to do with.They are also very good parents who will raise the young and care for them.
They are tropical fish so they need a heater,I have my convict’s heater set at about 26c.
Here is a really good web site about setting up a convict aquarium and breeding them: