# black convict fry heelpppppp!



## barbarian206 (Apr 2, 2008)

hi all,

well today when i woke up i went and put the lights on all my tanks and i noticed something strange in the 20 gallon convict tank i thought they were acting peculiar i have not seen the female in days low and behold when she came out a black clowed followed her i started to say what the f--- but there were about a million fry from the looks of it this is the first time for me i do not know exactly what to do i turned off my filter i have a internal one in there also its a box filter and *** been leaving the lights off also is this right i have a small light to turn on works on batteries is this ok please help. :dancing: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish: :fish:


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## barbarian206 (Apr 2, 2008)

here are some pics i took :
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z206 ... 02-1-1.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z206 ... G_0106.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z206 ... 0103-1.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z206 ... G_0105.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z206 ... G_0104.jpg


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## Malikal (Jan 6, 2008)

I have a HOB filter in my con tank and the fry hasn't been sucked in, at least not that i noticed. You don't need the lights off either, in fact, I have noticed that the fry swim when the lights are on and they "lay down" go to the bottom and sleep when the lights go off.

The parent take good care of them, but I have been told that will only last about 2 weeks, when the male may decide he is sick of protecting them.the female wont spawn again if there are fry that she is protecting so the male will eat them. so if you want to save the fry you may want to pull them or the parents before the male starts to eat them.

Either way, after the fry are gone they should spawn again fairly soon. I'd say withing 2 or 3 weeks.

Hope this helped, im still new to the whole cons and fry thing too.

Good Luck


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## barbarian206 (Apr 2, 2008)

hey thanks for the info will do


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## k19smith (Sep 6, 2005)

if you don't have a sponge to stick over your intake tubes you can use pantyhose till you can get to the store.


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## Hrafen (Feb 19, 2005)

Leave the filter running. You might lose a few fry to it,. but most will not get sucked in. Pantyhose is a good option, but being honest, do you really want all those fry? In a few weeks there will be how many fish in your tank? Eventually the parents will turn on them, maybe not in 2 weeks, but in 4 or 6 or so, they will.


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## PBCichlids (Oct 7, 2008)

Some parents will turn on their fry mine never do but really just keep it at the same temp and feed them crushed up/powder foods and the cons will take the best care of them


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## terd ferguson (Jul 31, 2007)

I'm not a breeder so I'm a big fan of letting nature take it's course. Either the parents (or tankmates) will eat them or they won't. If you want to keep them, they'll grow faster in with the parents than by themselves in another tank. With that said, it won't hurt to cover your intake on your filter, but it's not neccessary. The fry will mostly follow the parents around and they won't lead them into the filter. Sure, some will wander off, but not many. Covering the intake will also serve to lessen the flow rate of your filter, so keep an eye out for ammonia spikes and the like. I feed my convict fry crushed up flakes. For my Parachromis fry, it's much harder to feed them directly so they eat whatever ends up on the bottom and whatever food their parents bring them. And both the Convict and the Parachromis fry grow rapidly regardless of purposeful direct feedings versus indirect feeding via the parents.


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## PBCichlids (Oct 7, 2008)

terd ferguson said:


> I'm not a breeder so I'm a big fan of letting nature take it's course. Either the parents (or tankmates) will eat them or they won't. If you want to keep them, they'll grow faster in with the parents than by themselves in another tank. With that said, it won't hurt to cover your intake on your filter, but it's not neccessary. The fry will mostly follow the parents around and they won't lead them into the filter. Sure, some will wander off, but not many. Covering the intake will also serve to lessen the flow rate of your filter, so keep an eye out for ammonia spikes and the like. I feed my convict fry crushed up flakes. For my Parachromis fry, it's much harder to feed them directly so they eat whatever ends up on the bottom and whatever food their parents bring them. And both the Convict and the Parachromis fry grow rapidly regardless of purposeful direct feedings versus indirect feeding via the parents.


Couldn't agree more with the nature taking its course.... well said


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## barbarian206 (Apr 2, 2008)

ty all for the info i went out and bought asponge filter a cut it up and put it over the intake also i have a dropper that i use to feed the fry i crush up flake until it is powder and add it to some water then feed the fry if they eat it or not the parents take care of it i leave them be. =D> :thumb: :wink:


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