Discouraging Convict cichlids from laying eggs?

Question

I have a 40 gallon aquarium with 1 pair of Convicts. They already surprised us with about 50 babies. And now that the babies are getting bigger, I was wondering what could be done (short of separating the pair) to NOT have them lay for a while.

Answer 1

Typically paired Chiclids will mate only when conditions are perfect. You can lower the tank temp (keep it under 78) and also decrease the pH slightly. You can also re-arrange the tank layout a bit and remove any flat rocks that may be used to lay eggs on. Usually these changes in conditions prevent them from being comfortable engough to mate.

Answer 2

That can be a real problem as they breed so easily. Removing the sites at which they like to breed is one possibility. That would be all caves and flat rocks usually, but that's no guarantee as they may clear away gravel until they get to the bottom of the tank and breed there. As territorial as they get at breeding time tank mates would not likely discourage them either. That's a possibility though if the tank mates are large and quite aggressive.

Either one is worth a try but no guarantees either lol

MM

Answer 3

Your question is the Holy Grail of fish-keeping questions, the only known way to prevent these lascivious fish from procreating is to keep only males.Keeping only females will result in unfertilized egg batches on a clock-work like schedule. I know of one aquarist that swears that after selecting a group of all females, one of changed sexes and began fertilizing the eggs of all the other fish in the tank.(I doubt this,believing instead,that my friend selected a juvenile male,mistaking it for a female.) Some fish keepers solve the problem by adding some sort of fry eating fish to the tank,but this always seemed a little bit cruel to me.---- P.S. Another aquarist I know tried to separate his Convicts with a tank divider and they managed to spawn through it.(She laid her eggs close to the divider and he managed to fertilize them quite successfully.) Good luck,because love will find a way.-------PeeTee