Ahhhhh Baby Convict help!

[SilverRibbn]

I just saved three tiny babby (About 3/4 inch) convicts from becoming feeder fish at a local pet store :D ...but now I din't know what to do with them! :shock:
I have [u:4d84306d5d][b:4d84306d5d]no [/b:4d84306d5d][/u:4d84306d5d]experince with Convicts, Advice on feeding, tank, ect would be very nice!

~Silver

[Chet]

Hi SilverRibbn, and welcome to the forum. Convicts are very hardy fish and you should have no trouble keeping them. You can keep them in a 10 gallon for a while, but a 20 gallon or larger would be better suited long-term. Please be prepared for your convicts to fight amongst themselves, as convicts are very territorial and quite aggressive for their size. They will reach a max size between 4" and 6". If you have a male and female in your trio, they will most likely pair up in the coming months. I have heard of convicts breeding at 2" or so. They make excellent parents and are prolific breeders. If two of your fish do pair up, the third fish may be harassed relentlessly by the new pair. This will be determined largely by the size of the tank you have them in and if there are any tankmates. I hope this isn't information overkill. Please ask any other questions you have.

[CichlidPete]

Since you seem to be determined to rescue the little buggers you can either set up a small tank or put them in with small non-agressive fish. Really small fish. Most will eat whatever they think will fit in their mouth.

A 5 or 10 gallon setup would be ideal for now at least. Added benefit of setting up a tank for the new guys is they will be quarentined and prevent spreading any illness they may have to your other fish.

I feed all my fry Hikari Micropellets but crushed flake will work as well. They also like baby brine shrimp frozen or live.

Hope that helps.

BTW, I had one convict about 4 weeks ago and "rescued" a trio of young adults from the LFS, they give me alot of the "trade in" fish. I now have about 300 convicts. 2 of the trio paired up and a couple weeks later the third mated with the one I had allready. I thought the jewels were bad :)

[DR.J]

i know someone who has six convicts in a five gallon, only until they get big enough to go in a tank with other fish. anyway the five gallon is fine for three convicts as long as you plan on moving them into a bigger tank.