My new wild caught convict pictures (Here you go DMD)

They have been in my temporary tank since last night.  They have colored up a bit, but I anticipate them looking even better than they currently are. I will also mention that I do notice some differences in these as opposed to the store  bought one (circles on their sides between their lines for one). I have also noticed that they are every bit as aggressive as the store bought ones, maybe even more aggressive.

Here you go...... the male is the larger one

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w/o a flash with the male moving quickly......
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How interesting that their lines are not as bold but like you say the lil spots are very apparent.

exactly. i was hoping for really crisp lines. it is still early, so the spots could disappear into some deep crisp lines. they are also still pretty small (male maybe 2", female 1.5") the oranges and blues and yellows are really nice too.

Very cool I imagine that is only a fraction of the color that will come out, feed them mysis shrimp and blood worms I bet they will color out awesome.

haha, discus, you read my mind. I gave them some blood worms tonight and will give them some shrimp this weekend. need to make sure they will eat my pellets before I give them treats more often.

 .oO I dig the WC Convicts. I was thinking about putting a couple in my future large tank plans.

They look great.. post some more pics when they are at full color please.

What paintguy said. lol

The colors at such a small size are awesome, those yellows are very nice. Now I wish I would have grabbed me a male.

Those WC cons are beautiful, lots of color. Thanks for sharing the pics.

I think all the extra color in the fins is what's going to stand out above the domestic ones! Looks like quite a bit of yellow in there . Nice!

Always nice, though rare, seeing pure convicts. They are beautiful.

I'm really enjoying them so far!   And to think that I used to use convicts as dithers only, and now I have a pair as the center piece of one of my tanks.... My how time has changed me.

Let me know if you get some fry going. Would love to take a few fry off your hands. I mean... so your tank doesnt get too crowded  

Very sweet looking!

lloyd378 wrote:I'm really enjoying them so far!   And two think that I used to use convicts as dithers only, and now I have a pair as the center piece of one of my tanks.... My how time has changed me.

Time will change a lot of people now that some F1 fry will be available soon....   

Glad you are enjoying your new guys Lloyd. They look great. Looking forward to lots of update pics on these special fish.

lloyd378 wrote:They have been in my temporary tank since last night.  They have colored up a bit, but I anticipate them looking even better than they currently are. I will also mention that I do notice some differences in these as opposed to the store  bought one (circles on their sides between their lines for one).  I have also noticed that they are every bit as aggressive as the store bought ones, maybe even more aggressive.

Here you go...... the male is the larger one

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w/o a flash with the male moving quickly......
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Looking good Lloyd. Cant wait to see them once they're established in your tanks and I bet the colors will pop even more.

They're good little fish! They eat any pellet I out in the tank, and yesterday they started to clean up a small cave-like structure that I put in the tank. They can't possibly be thinking of spawning yet, they are far too small and been in my tank for less than a week

They are probably the horniest cichlid on planet earth

Haha, Yes, they do tend to overpopulate! I'm guessing, but have no proof, that some people only keep convicts to breed them for feeders for their other cichlids! I know I would be tempted to if I had a pair of common hybridized fish store convicts in my possession....

Wild caught feeders... lol

Chiisai wrote:Wild caught feeders... lol

I think technically the fry would be F1 feeders.

fishNAbowl wrote:
I think technically the fry would be F1 feeders.

yes I suppose your right, I was more just amused at the idea of buying WC fish to use for feeding other possibly store bought fish. Sorry I guess I just expected you were reading my mind

If they are a cleaning a spot then you'll have eggs in a few days. When I got my cons they were less than 1" and by the end of week one I had 3 pairs spawn. Never thought it was possible either haha!  

I wasn't saying I was going to feed my wc or f1 fry to other fish... Lol

I was saying that if I needed feeders I'd go buy a pair from a lfs for 5 bucks and go that route..... You two crack me up!

Do you have fry yet? lol their convicts... whats taking so long!

Indeed. Surprise they didn't lay eggs in the bag on their way to you.   

I actually already have f2 fry ..... Since it's been four days and all :-)

Chiisai wrote:

fishNAbowl wrote:
I think technically the fry would be F1 feeders.

yes I suppose your right, I was more just amused at the idea of buying WC fish to use for feeding other possibly store bought fish. Sorry I guess I just expected you were reading my mind

  

If I had a big tank set up I would totally be into F1 Convicts!!

fishNAbowl wrote:If I had a big tank set up I would totally be into F1 Convicts!!

I dont understand why a "big tank"? Or maybe I should ask what your idea of a big tank is. I have read of people breeding em in a 10gal though general thought is 29gal+??? I dunno I got a few pairs like 2 weeks ago(already have prolly 100fry) and still learning.

Having F1's available soon is exciting enough.   

Im guessing big tank for convicts would be 75g plus! Mine are in a 40g ..... And I think I'll get them into a 55 at some point...... Years ago when i was in college, there was a sweet 8ft tank in the science hall that housed about 30 convicts! It was beautiful to watch them all interact .....

And I know that fishnabowl always makes sure his fish are taken care of and that they also have more than enough space.

lloyd378 wrote:Im guessing big tank for convicts would be 75g plus!  Mine are in a 40g ..... And I think I'll get them into a 55 at some point...... Years ago when i was in college, there was a sweet 8ft tank in the science hall that housed about 30 convicts!  It was beautiful to watch them all interact .....
And I know that fishnabowl always makes sure his fish are taken care of and that they also have more than enough space.

I guess overstocking would keep down aggression but 30 convicts? Wow seems like that would cause aggression injuries

Chiisai wrote:

fishNAbowl wrote:If I had a big tank set up I would totally be into F1 Convicts!!

I dont understand why a "big tank"? Or maybe I should ask what your idea of a big tank is. I have read of people breeding em in a 10gal though general thought is 29gal+??? I dunno I got a few pairs like 2 weeks ago(already have prolly 100fry) and still learning.

Well, one day when my wife says okay I plan on getting a BIG tank (3-450 gallons). With pike cichlids , peacock bass , and medium sized catfish roaming around. It would be neat to have rubble here and there with WC convicts living in them, pike living along the woods and large Java and Anubias, and bass roaming the top of the tank. Is my dream....

ooh yeah. I always thought if I could get my hands on like a 800-1500gal tank preferably larger footprint rather then deep... I would see how many fish I could put into it to make a kind of biotope ya know? Maybe take some community fish and cichlids from any given SA country and let em do their thing. I dunno it would prolly fail miserable but I am sure the convicts would outbreed/outlast everything for sure!

Back to the convicts.... I just went in to feed them and noticed that their two tankmates were kind of on edge.... I also noticed both convicts swimming in unison with one at a time darting at their tankmates. I them looked closer and saw around 50 fry swimming about completely unaware of the dangers on the other side of the tank. ( I just finished relocating the tankmates to my sons tank....). I post up some new pics tomorrow morning or Monday.

lloyd378 wrote:Back to the convicts.... I just went in to feed them and noticed that their two tankmates were kind of on edge.... I also noticed both convicts swimming in unison with one at a time darting at their tankmates. I them looked closer and saw around 50 fry swimming about completely unaware of the dangers on the other side of the tank.   ( I just finished relocating the tankmates to my sons tank....). I post up some new pics tomorrow morning or Monday.  

  - Very cool, can't wait for pictures.

 

 

here are some pics. a video with fry coming soon.
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as you can see, the color has not really come in, nor are they displaying any spawning colors...... but those dots on the side of the male are still ever present

I really like the look of them

Look sweet! Already have the baby factory started!

Dibs on a pair of those fry?

Done chilsai!

Btw, the males yellow belly is really starting to color up! I'd up load pics more often if it wasn't such a hassle..... My laptop has some sort of issue so getting good pics off of my camera is a bit challenging

How is that batch of fry coming along?   

Biggest fry around 1/2" smallest are like 1/32" (3 batches so far all growing together in the tank with parents)

Here are two videos i shot with my phone last night..... I'm hoping the yellow shows up in these videos.



You may need motion sickness meds to watch the second one.

Love those colors. She looks amazing.