# accidental mixture of convict with malawi



## eastern_strider (Sep 13, 2015)

Hi,

When I was setting up my cichlid tank, I accidentally put three convict (zebra) cichlids with a bunch of malawi cichlids. This was because of the misinformation that the LFS gave to me (he thought they are malawi as well!). I've now returned the male convict cichlid to avoid their breeding (I learned that they are notorious for their extreme breeding). In fact, I quite liked the colors and interesting personalities of these convict cichlids.

My question is do you think this will cause me a problem in the future? Should I give them back to the LFS to have a pure malawi tank?

My second question is that I have a single male auratus in my tank. Again, I bought this fish without knowing how aggressive they are. However, this single male does not seem to be displaying any aggression towards its tank mates. So I would like to learn your opinion about whether this fish could safely stay in my tank, in which the other types of fish are electric yellow, demasoni, afra jalo reef, acei, and p. socolofi.

I appreciate your comments and feedback.
eastern_strider


----------



## james1983 (Dec 23, 2007)

What are your tank dimensions and how large is the auratus?


----------



## eastern_strider (Sep 13, 2015)

My tank is 40 gallons (160 liters) with 40" (40 cm) on the longest side. The auratus is around 8cm.

Thanks,
e_s


----------



## james1983 (Dec 23, 2007)

Give the auratus some time and it will eventually try to and probably succeed at killing everyone in a tank that small. I would go with a single, peaceful species or a breeding pair of cons.


----------



## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Return the Malawis. You might be able to keep male only Malawi cichlids in a small tank, but with some females to fight over, it will not work. A pair of Central American convicts (females have a shiny orange patch on their sides) or even a trio, one male, two females, would work in this tank. Use rock work or tank decor to create two territories in the tank where the females can stay without having to interact. Out of sight out of mind. What usually happens is that the male splits his time between both females, and the females try to keep their fry close so they don't mingle with the other female's fry. If evenly matched, they won't fight each other and once the fry clouds expand and combine they begin to cooperate.

Of course your tank is perfectly sized for many of the smaller species of Tanganyikan cichlids. Brichardi, Julidochromis, or a shell dweller would be very interesting to watch, but granted they don't have the strong yellows and blues of the mbuna cichlids of Malawi.


----------



## tanker3 (May 18, 2015)

The Auratus will kill all those fish in a tank twice that size. They are really mean. Also convict will breed readilly, but cannot cross breed with Mbunas.


----------



## klimarov (May 12, 2015)

I have convicts with my malawi cichlids. My father has convicts with his malavi cichlids. They work out well with african cichlids.

info:
- Convicts breed every 4-6 weeks. 
- convicts form pairs, unlike malavi cichlids. so you don't need 3x females 1 male for convicts.
- convicts are hardy fish, however that aggressive as people say is not that bad. usually they will survive unless there fish in the tank that can swallow them whole.
- adult females are smaller, like 3-3.5 inches top, males can go to 5-6
- females have yellow/orange belly, this is actually not constant. Yellow belly indicates their readiness to breed. i know as mine bred 3 times already. when they are growing fry, belly is not yellow but regular color. they use that yellow belly to let the guy know "hey bud i'm ready for kids". 
- their breeding behavior is very interesting to observe, especially how they grow their fry. 
- as for fry, they do eat their fry if they feel tank is overstocked and their fry has no chance of survival. If you want to breed them, make sure they are in separate tank and if you start seeing fry disappears, move both parents out of the tank. make sure however that fry can self feed.

as for conclusion, they coexist with malawi cichlids just fine. Their aggression level is rather low, it goes higher when they breed but only over the area where they hold their fry. Lastly do agree with you, convicts look cute and even curter when breeding.


----------

