Babies, babies and more Babies

[James]

Today my Convicts decided to have the eggs she's been getting ready for some time. I have them all isolated in a smaller tank and everyone one is doing great BTW.

I need some advice as to whether there is anything I should do or not do as far as the fry as concerned and what would you do with about 10x increase in fish. If I have to get a HUGE tank right away, I guess that can be done but this is my first egg layers and I really dig these guys. I hate to part with any. LOL

WWYD? Thanks ;-)

--
James

[NetMax]

"James" > wrote in message
...
Today my Convicts decided to have the eggs she's been getting ready for
some time. I have them all isolated in a smaller tank and everyone one is
doing great BTW.

I need some advice as to whether there is anything I should do or not do
as far as the fry as concerned and what would you do with about 10x
increase in fish. If I have to get a HUGE tank right away, I guess that
can be done but this is my first egg layers and I really dig these guys.
I hate to part with any. LOL

WWYD? Thanks ;-)

--
James

The eggs are isolated, or the parents or both? Generally, you leave the
parents with the eggs where they laid the eggs. The parents are quite
dutiful in protecting the eggs and fry, and they have maintenance duties,
removing dead eggs (which get covered in fungus which can spread to good
eggs) and they aerate the eggs (always pushing fresh water past them).

Convicts could in theory (and with a bit of help from you) supply you
with a few hundred fry every 3-4 weeks, so I don't think you want to try
to accommodate that. My advice is to let them be and watch their
parenting instincts at work. If you keep the water turbulence really low
when the fry start the free-swimming stage, you can watch the parents
train them as to where & when to swim. There might be a high infant
mortality with the first batch (normal), but the survivor count increases
significantly with the next batch. You can separate the eggs from the
parents, and aerate and treat the fungus yourself (or feed the eggs to
other fish), but parents separated from their eggs will waste little time
before starting a new batch.

When I've had too many fry, I've removed the parents and let the
community fish enjoy a free meal. It might sound harsh, but if you find
yourself up to your eyeballs in Convict fry, you will have a better
appreciation of your dilemma. You can always give a few to someone you
don't like ;~).
--
www.NetMax.tk

[James]

I have the mom and kids in the smaller tank for now. Dad is in the big tank. It is amazing how attentive they are to their young.

This is the fist batch ( so far ) and I never thought about how many I would keep and what would I do with the rest. My LFS won't take them so I will give them away to local fellow hobbyists I guess.

These are great fish but holy cow.... I can see where they can be real good at overtaking the community.

Thanks :-)

--
James
"NetMax" > wrote in message .. .
"James" > wrote in message
...
Today my Convicts decided to have the eggs she's been getting ready for
some time. I have them all isolated in a smaller tank and everyone one is
doing great BTW.

I need some advice as to whether there is anything I should do or not do
as far as the fry as concerned and what would you do with about 10x
increase in fish. If I have to get a HUGE tank right away, I guess that
can be done but this is my first egg layers and I really dig these guys.
I hate to part with any. LOL

WWYD? Thanks ;-)

--
James

The eggs are isolated, or the parents or both? Generally, you leave the
parents with the eggs where they laid the eggs. The parents are quite
dutiful in protecting the eggs and fry, and they have maintenance duties,
removing dead eggs (which get covered in fungus which can spread to good
eggs) and they aerate the eggs (always pushing fresh water past them).

Convicts could in theory (and with a bit of help from you) supply you
with a few hundred fry every 3-4 weeks, so I don't think you want to try
to accommodate that. My advice is to let them be and watch their
parenting instincts at work. If you keep the water turbulence really low
when the fry start the free-swimming stage, you can watch the parents
train them as to where & when to swim. There might be a high infant
mortality with the first batch (normal), but the survivor count increases
significantly with the next batch. You can separate the eggs from the
parents, and aerate and treat the fungus yourself (or feed the eggs to
other fish), but parents separated from their eggs will waste little time
before starting a new batch.

When I've had too many fry, I've removed the parents and let the
community fish enjoy a free meal. It might sound harsh, but if you find
yourself up to your eyeballs in Convict fry, you will have a better
appreciation of your dilemma. You can always give a few to someone you
don't like ;~).
--
www.NetMax.tk