Convict Housing Question

**AmazingH** · 10-12-2008, 09:41 PM

About a month or two ago I ended up saving a convict cichlid from my cousin's 75 gallon. The poor guy (girl?) had been badly beaten by his tankmates and was cowarding in a corner with hardly any fins. He's been kept in a heated and filtered ten gallon for now, and he's gotten better and braver over time. Suprisingly, he's done great with the resident pleco who's spent time in that tank cleaning up after the hundreds of guppy and molly fry who've been born and raised in that tank.

So now we're moving all of my fishroom up into the livingroom, and we've been thinking.. if we find out his gender.. we could get him a female tankmate. We figure if he IS actually a boy, he's got a mate, and if he's a female, they can just chill together. We'd like to put them in our twenty nine gallon. We're willing to trade the twenty nine from the guppy/molly/platty community tank to his tank, and spread all of our guppies and such into our other smaller tanks (tens, five.fives and twp.fives).

So.. my question is.... can we ACTUALLY keep two convicts in the twenty nine gallon?? Or should I just keep him in the ten gallon?

Thanks in advance if you've answered. This is my first post, and I'm curious to see how many points I can rack up this week. =-)

~Amazing Holly

**Lady Hobbs** · 10-12-2008, 09:45 PM

If you have mates, two will work in a 29 gallon. Keep in mind however, mates have babies, hundreds of them, and get very aggressive at spawning time. If are are ill equipped to handle hundreds of babies, then you should stick with only the one and some other fish.

**Sharkman** · 10-12-2008, 09:47 PM

a couple ways to identify convicts are for the males having a small hump on their forehead. The females usually have orange coloration on their bellies.

**AmazingH** · 10-12-2008, 09:50 PM

Decisions to be made.. decisions, decisions, decisions!!
We still have some time to think about it... and we'll have to wait until we cycle the twenty nine gallon before anything is done. My convict has no bump.. and I'm not sure is he has some color (I'm too lazy to go downstaires right now)

What could I house with convicts?

~AmazingHolly

**Sharkman** · 10-12-2008, 10:05 PM

if you get a pair of convicts, nothing can be kept with them as they are extremely aggressive. Especially if its a 29g the male and female should be the only fish in the tank. Inch for inch, convicts are one of the toughest, most aggressive fish in my opinion.

**THE HYBRID MAN** · 10-12-2008, 10:54 PM

Don't Get A Pair Of Convict Unless You Want Babies Lots Of Babies.show Me A Pic So I Can Sex It For You.THESE ARE SOME PICS OF MY MALE & FEMALE COVICTS. DSC_3374.JPG

DSC_3358.JPG

**AmazingH** · 10-13-2008, 03:38 PM

Last night I swear I saw the tiniest hint of a hump....
Think I'll just take a pic to LFS this week.

Say, if he was the only convict in the tank.. what could we house with him fish wise?

~AmazingHolly

**Sharkman** · 10-13-2008, 03:59 PM

its tough to say what you could house with the convict. If it's a male, he will likely be too aggressive for other fish. If it is a female you may be able to get another female, but there would need to be lots of hiding places and territories to claim. It's just a hard situation with a convict in a 29g. It's really not a great size for them. I think a lot of it depends on the temperment of the individual fish. If the fish is really young like an inch or so you could possibly introduce something else.

**AmazingH** · 10-13-2008, 04:32 PM

I'm thinking it's a full grown convict. He's probably 4-5 inches?

~AmazingHolly

**Sharkman** · 10-13-2008, 04:36 PM

yea you will have some trouble finding ang tank mate for him. Especially in 20g because he has already established his territory and that could be the entire tank. You wouldn't know until you put the fish in, but that isn't a good idea. Do you have any other larger tanks? You could probably trade him in to the store and make your money back now that he is full grown. If he does not have a hump and the fish is 4-5 inches its probably a female. The hump will be subtle, but still noticeable. Sorry that this isn't working out how you had hoped.