i have been given a whole heap of baby convicts as my brother in law is moving too far away to take them and i live in a small town with no pet shops so i was wondering if i can buy any flakes from a super market untill i get out of town to buy some good ones
2007-03-18 16:37:24 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Fish
Tetra tropical flake is good and available at most grocery stores. Some may also have Tetra cichlid products. It's not the best money can buy, but it is good.
2007-03-19 02:14:35 · answer #1 · answered by something_fishy 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You might need to find pellets instead of flakes. I raised baby convicts for years and they ate either small cichlid crumbles or small cichlid pellets. When I tried to feed them flakes, they didn't know how to go to the top of the tank to eat them. Even the adult convicts had to have food that slowly sank through the water.
In about three months your baby convicts will be old enough to make their own babies...so if you try to keep them all, you'll end up with way too many fish. You can tell the males from the females when they're old enough to breed because the females have a pink patch on their sides.
Convicts grow fast...unless you have a huge tank, they'll outgrow it soon. You'll know because the water will get dirty and smelly every couple of weeks, and the filter will get dirty really quickly. If they get really overcrowded, they will all stay up near the very top of the tank...a temporary fix for that is to add an airstone and air pump.
Good luck with them!
2007-03-18 23:48:25 · answer #2 · answered by Judi 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Convicts are cichlids, so I would start by researching nutritional avenues and then determine what is available. I have fed my Jack Dempsey raw steak before, but I try to stick to the food that I purchase at my petstore.
2007-03-18 23:45:52 · answer #3 · answered by dmbdloresfavorite 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They may eat any old flake food....My dad used to raise cichlids for many years...and we just fed them regular flakes that we ground up into very small bits.
2007-03-19 03:11:41 · answer #4 · answered by Mr.Robot 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any brand of tropical fish food flakes should do it.
2007-03-18 23:39:40 · answer #5 · answered by Terri R 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You could but you wouldn't be giving them the same nutrients from brand name food but it's fine i guess. Just make sure.
2007-03-18 23:40:50 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Be careful, or they could grow up to be convicts. Best of luck to you!
2007-03-18 23:39:50 · answer #7 · answered by Jacques 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋