Convicts....

Shock · 05-13-2008, 05:25 PM

Well i have had convicts for a while, the mother died, and the father i gave away, and i kept two babies, the babies are now 9 months old, and are BEAUTIFUL! but i have noticed these two do not mate or anything. so do fish not mate with brothers and sisters?

orb4me · 05-14-2008, 04:04 PM

Maybe they dont. Are you sure they are male and female? Water temp a little warmer maybe? I really have no clue. Maybe they think their parents are in jail!

Shock · 05-14-2008, 11:29 PM

Thanks orb, im confused too! they are male and female, females have orange bellys. but i love these two. they have been very skittish, i guess since there tank doesnt get walked by very often, but lately i try to stop by and see them a few times a day, and i took out almost all there decor so they have only 1 place to hide, but now when i walk up the female come looking for food the male is scared. The tank is warm, actually way too warm, like 85* but they dont care. (my heater is broke, im too cheap to buy a new one)

But they are my babies, i raised their mother from the day she was born also, her mommy was in the tank with oscars for months, and she had babies, and a week or so later mommy died.... and about 2-3 weeks later i looked in the tank at night and saw the little girl swimming around trying to stay away from oscars, so i scooped her up, went out the next day, spent 70$ on a tank and equip for her, then aobut a year later she had babies! LOL ok there is my story, i have the second generation of convicts on my hand...

My lucky and oscar shall be my FW babies for now!

ZeroSystem · 05-18-2008, 01:44 PM

Don't worry, they'll breed. It's only a matter of time. They should be able to breed by the time they're an inch or so. It's possible that the female is the dominate of the two, in which case she will be the one who decides when and if the breeding will take place. I've heard that many times the female will wait until she's nearly full grown (around 4 inches or so) before starting to breed, while males usually want to get started as soon as possible! Go figure.

orb4me · 05-18-2008, 02:24 PM

I know what you mean with loving the fish. I am sorry, I didnt mean to make light of your problem, I just feel that sometimes it helps to lighten things up.

Shock · 05-18-2008, 03:17 PM

Lol, orb, its fine, i have no problem. I was thinking about trying to find a little jail cell looking thing for them since you mentioned the parnets being in "jail" these two just hang out looking out at me from inside of their decor, so a jailcell looking thing would be funny!

Its not a big problem, I dont want them to mate to be honest! lol I was just wondering why they havent.

orb4me · 05-18-2008, 03:48 PM

that would be so cute

tweaks · 05-22-2008, 11:34 PM

It also could be a case of just not being a suitable mate too they should be more than big enough and old enough to breed mine did at about an inch well the male was the female was still tiny but thats why you buy them in groups and soo they find a mate and than take back the rest if you dont wanna keep them they wont just breed with anyone what kind of cons are they? my pinks nipped at eachother constantly almost looking to test there mate to see if they were good enough

Shock · 05-26-2008, 08:55 PM

ok i lied.... i gave them back all their tank decorations last week. ( i only had 1 place for them to "hide" becasue they are so skiddish), and i noticed they where acting funny, female was hiding in the ship while the male was patrolling, sure enough, about 50 little babies. sadly i got rid of the babies, i cannot have babies in a 10 gallon tank! Ive done the baby thing before, but i dont have a big enough tank for them :| I feel bad now. They are both running around the tank searching for the babies