# Electric Blue Convict?



## MonteSS

This was soldto me a while ago from a LFS as an Electric Blue Convict. I would guess it a HRP/Convict hybrid but who knows. It's a female and very pretty either way.

Wonder if I bred her with a HRP or Con what the offspring would be. She currenly is paired with my female Centrarchus and lays eggs all the time.


















.....Bill


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## Trevor55

Nice female. She does look like a HRP/Convict hybrid as you said. But she is a beaut!


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## TheFishGuy

Looks like a normal convict to me... I've got plenty that are quite blue...


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## MonteSS

TheFishGuy said:


> Looks like a normal convict to me... I've got plenty that are quite blue...


Definitely not all con. Waaay too blue body and fins. Also no orange on the belly.

....Bill


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## dwarfpike

The last pic shows some orange on the belly, though can't be sure that it's not just reflective from the flash if used. But not all of the convict species show orange female bellies. I'd say it's a standard LFS convict, which will be a mix of 2-4 convict species.


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## Lancerlot

Female con. There is orange on the belly.

just cause a fish isn't cookie cutter doesn't mean its not that fish. Cons can have many looks. But sometimes look different due to inbreeding or just bad breeding. Anyways that is a normal female convict cichlid.


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## MonteSS

OK. Thanks for the input.

Why do people ask for advice/discussion and then dont use it? :x LOL

I guess it just wasn't the answer I wnted to hear.

Just that I have seen hundreds of pics of con and never saw anything even remotely as blue as this. Not even close.

I believe you all now though. I guess it's like how many varients of color there are in RD/Midas, Nics, etc.

Thanks again...Bill


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## terd ferguson

MonteSS said:


> OK. Thanks for the input.
> 
> Why do people ask for advice/discussion and then dont use it? :x LOL
> 
> I guess it just wasn't the answer I wnted to hear.
> 
> Just that I have seen hundreds of pics of con and never saw anything even remotely as blue as this. Not even close.
> 
> Thanks again...Bill


How about this?










Lol, just kidding. These are HRP's posted for comparison's sake. And for the record, I agree with TheFishGuy. I have plenty of Convicts with more blue than that.


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## gage

I have never seen a guaranteed pure convict with this much blue... I vote HRPxCon (which is a majority of the LFS cons now anyways lol)


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## M0oN

Once upon a time convicts were all a lot more blue than that...inbreeding sucks. Buy wild caught and you'll see colors like that - if not better.


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## TheFishGuy

Bill, I would be more than happy to tell you the secrete of my "electric blue" convicts.

I had a pink male (A) spawn with a grey female (B).

Their daughter (C) spawned with the pink male (A)

The ending result was this:

Male









Female









She has now spawned with a new male convict (D)

And one of their grey daughters (E) will be spawned back to the new male convict (D)

Incidently their spawn was 50/50 grey/pink. 

Sorry to cause such a ruckus, but there's absolutely no way anyone could tell for sure if your convict has any HRP in it or not. DNA tests would be the ONLY way to know for sure. I've been accused of crossing HRP with my convicts to get the blue in them, but the fact is the original male and female (A,B) are a result of about 6-7 generations of pink and grey convicts that have been raised here. I've got a thing for convicts if you can't tell. While I do have HRPs here they are all too young to spawn. Actually I've got two variants of HRPs. Ones that in my eyes look exactly like convicts and ones that look nothing like convicts. They don't even act like convicts, so much so that if I tried to cross them my fear would be they would get killed... I always have convicts for raising live food for my other fish. They will be a fish that will always occupy atleat two or three tanks in the fish room.

Also! Daughter (C) who's getting up in age by the way, has a daughter who has just spawned with a viel tail convict. The fry have been free swimming for a week or so now... I can't wait to see how they turn out!

She's still in breeding dress but you can see some of her color in these pics. These were taken this morning right after the fishroom lights were turned on:


















OMG, Sorry Bill... I didn't mean to take over


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## Trevor55

Nice cons. i wanna get cons again sooooo bad. But all i have are a 29g, 24g tote and a few tens. thats enough for one good pair and fry tanks :drooling: :drooling: :drooling: :drooling: I gotta get some cons.....


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## M0oN

This old beast died after about 12 years roughly a year ago 

Everyone and their mother accused it of being a hybrid.


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## Trevor55

he doesnt look like a hybrid!


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## dwarfpike

As *TFG* said, without expensive DNA testing it's impossible to tell. Like the whole RD/Midas mess, most convicts found in the hobby are hybrids of one sort or another.

*Moon* - That was a nice _A. kanna_ ... I suppose it could be a cross of kanna and nigrofasciatus as it's rare to see pure _A. kanna_s ... but again, without testing ...

Beauty of a male kanna though!


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## Lancerlot

The fish guy. My male used to look like that, Actually all the convict cichlids here in Sudbury all had the Tales like that. Well the males did. I thought it was normal

but here's the interesting part. 1/100 000 fry of those fish will produce a 100% black convict cichlid. I've come across 3 in the 8 years of i've been keeping fish. but cause Of our city everybody thought it was normal. If I or others had known we would have taken pictures.

When the LFs got hold of one it went for 100dollors lol. they had 1-3 of them a year.

so heads up you got a good chance at getting a black beauty.
This is the only picture I had of him and hes in the flash. Wasn't really trying to get a picture of the fish them selves( feels like the pictures of aliens. Their there. but not in focus. SO how do you know its real? lol). but yeah you can see the tail and abnormal blackness. GL
Everybody will say its a hybrid. but as you know from spawning. and as I know. Its not true.


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## Trevor55

Very interesting!


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## TheFishGuy

Oh... I don't think he's worth anything really... He was a rescue...


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## Trevor55

But he is very pretty! I like how dark he is! i am getting convicts soon again! Just looking for some nice ones....


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## Trevor55

TheFishGuy said:


> Bill, I would be more than happy to tell you the secrete of my "electric blue" convicts.
> 
> I had a pink male (A) spawn with a grey female (B).
> 
> Their daughter (C) spawned with the pink male (A)
> 
> The ending result was this:
> 
> Male
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Female
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> She has now spawned with a new male convict (D)
> 
> And one of their grey daughters (E) will be spawned back to the new male convict (D)
> 
> Incidently their spawn was 50/50 grey/pink.
> 
> Sorry to cause such a ruckus, but there's absolutely no way anyone could tell for sure if your convict has any HRP in it or not. DNA tests would be the ONLY way to know for sure. I've been accused of crossing HRP with my convicts to get the blue in them, but the fact is the original male and female (A,B) are a result of about 6-7 generations of pink and grey convicts that have been raised here. I've got a thing for convicts if you can't tell. While I do have HRPs here they are all too young to spawn. Actually I've got two variants of HRPs. Ones that in my eyes look exactly like convicts and ones that look nothing like convicts. They don't even act like convicts, so much so that if I tried to cross them my fear would be they would get killed... I always have convicts for raising live food for my other fish. They will be a fish that will always occupy atleat two or three tanks in the fish room.
> 
> Also! Daughter (C) who's getting up in age by the way, has a daughter who has just spawned with a viel tail convict. The fry have been free swimming for a week or so now... I can't wait to see how they turn out!
> 
> She's still in breeding dress but you can see some of her color in these pics. These were taken this morning right after the fishroom lights were turned on:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> OMG, Sorry Bill... I didn't mean to take over


 And how does that get them blue? I dont understand. HOw does corssing a grey with a pick and the daughter back to the dad give you blue cons? i dont understand how that works?


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## gage

I would assume it has something to do with the recessive trait of the pink convict

or who knows, maybe they used Leucistic HRP's to get that gene into convicts


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## dwarfpike

Could have just been a blue strain of covicts. There are several wild races that have massive blue.


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## Trevor55

I dont know lol. I have always wanted bluer cons. . . Does any even sell wilds? that arent expensive? Because i dont have alot to invest in with cons.


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## dwarfpike

Yes, both Jeff Rapps and Ken Davis sell wilds and yes, they are more expensive than normal cons. Well worth it I think for pure fish.


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## Chromedome52

Trevor55 said:


> I dont know lol. I have always wanted bluer cons. . . *Does any even sell wilds? that arent expensive? Because i dont have alot to invest in with cons*.


Back in the 1980s, a fellow named Dan Fromm brought some colorful wild Convict populations back from various parts of Central America. Naturally they spawned, and a few people asked him about getting some of the breeders. His price *then *was $100 per pair. The reaction was, to say the least, shock; "They're just convicts, how can you charge that for them?"

His reply is classic: "If you don't like my price, then go collect them yourself. I'll even give you the exact location." Of course, back then it cost a lot more to go get them, but it is still true that anyone who spends the money to go collect wild populations and keep them clean deserves to get more for these than the junk that you get at the LFS. I only wish I could afford to go collect my own, so I am appreciative of the effort and expense undertaken by those who do.

That said, there are at least a couple of people who do sell young of various wild populations that they collected (for a lot less than $100 pr.!). Check Aquabid, there are a couple regularly listed there with pictures (I hope this passes forum rules, as I did not mention anyone specific). They are a bit more than you will spend at the Box stores, but the colors are far more impressive, even on F1 and F2 fish. And it turns out that the fish we always thought of as "Convicts" are actually multiple species. So if you want some "really blue Convicts" from wild types, they are most assuredly available. And to be honest, they're still a lot cheaper than most of the big CA species.


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## TheFishGuy

I have no idea why they turned so blue after that process... The original female (B) was not blue at all.


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## bntbrl

Perhaps it was a trait from past ancestry. Maybe a fluke color, or maybe something from something else being bred into them at one time?


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## TheFishGuy

Well, I'm going to do it again to see if I get the same results...


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## Diaster

This thread makes me want to make my 50g into a Convict heaven as my old male is the only guy in there "just set it up today" Te funny thing about his coloration is he is always a very dark color even when breeding but his young always had a lot of white.


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## Leucistic Guy

I have 2 broods of pinks from 2 spawns, maybe I'll try TFG's method to try my luck.
I have a few young pinks with real nice colors in the fins too.
(My cons are around for live snacks as well.  )
It's be nice if I could get some blues too.
Now I need to find a nice gray or two.

Do you think this would work if I tried crossing both of my "Pinks parents"?

Soory for the hijack.



TheFishGuy said:


> Bill, I would be more than happy to tell you the secrete of my "electric blue" convicts.
> 
> I had a pink male (A) spawn with a grey female (B).
> 
> Their daughter (C) spawned with the pink male (A)
> 
> The ending result was this:
> 
> Male
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Female
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> She has now spawned with a new male convict (D)
> 
> And one of their grey daughters (E) will be spawned back to the new male convict (D)
> 
> Incidently their spawn was 50/50 grey/pink.
> 
> Sorry to cause such a ruckus, but there's absolutely no way anyone could tell for sure if your convict has any HRP in it or not. DNA tests would be the ONLY way to know for sure. I've been accused of crossing HRP with my convicts to get the blue in them, but the fact is the original male and female (A,B) are a result of about 6-7 generations of pink and grey convicts that have been raised here. I've got a thing for convicts if you can't tell. While I do have HRPs here they are all too young to spawn. Actually I've got two variants of HRPs. Ones that in my eyes look exactly like convicts and ones that look nothing like convicts. They don't even act like convicts, so much so that if I tried to cross them my fear would be they would get killed... I always have convicts for raising live food for my other fish. They will be a fish that will always occupy atleat two or three tanks in the fish room.
> 
> Also! Daughter (C) who's getting up in age by the way, has a daughter who has just spawned with a viel tail convict. The fry have been free swimming for a week or so now... I can't wait to see how they turn out!
> 
> She's still in breeding dress but you can see some of her color in these pics. These were taken this morning right after the fishroom lights were turned on:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> OMG, Sorry Bill... I didn't mean to take over


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## TheFishGuy

I Have no idea  Not hard to try though :lol:


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## Leucistic Guy

I know... 
I only have 1 pair of adults & they produce enough snacks for me.
It was hard to use them as snacks in the beginning, but they breed so often so I don't have a choice but be a little "evil". :lol:


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## TheFishGuy

Every time I throw a spawn in with the clown knife my wife asks if I'm feeling a bit sadistic :lol:


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## Briguy

Here is what mine looks like. I would like to think it is an HRP or cross breed but by the previous posts here it is probably a convict. What threw me off the most is the long dorsal and anal fins as well as the orange belly.


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## Briguy

oops


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## Diaster

definitely a con my female has the most intense colors and finnage I have ever had on one "looks just like yours :thumb: " my male on the other hand may be the ugliest con in existence there is 0 white coloration its brown on black sometimes with no stripes. He used to be white and have brilliant black baring now he just looks like a turd that loves to have babies "I like though " Hopefully the pretty female will offset the ugly dad when they babies arrive so my JD's can look at something pretty before they eat it :lol:


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## TheFishGuy

Yep normal female con... All of my female have nice long fins too... Some kid on youtube got in an argument with me about one of my females trying to tell me it was a male. :lol: I tried to explain to him it was a fourth generation female here and her hubby was twice her size but he knew everything there was to know about fish so I gave up LOL


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## Riceburner

yep...my female has nice fins and quite a bit of blue and green


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## Diaster

TFG sometimes you cant win my father were fishing at a place that had big rainbow trout we are having a good time catching quite a few fish. We noticed this guy watching us for probably a half an hour he saw us catch a about 10 fish each, my just landed a huge 23" bow and the guy has the nerve to come down and tell us we were fishing in the wrong spot...we were so shocked to this day im not sure what he was thinking


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## TheFishGuy

:lol: Some people... :lol:


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