Problem

[Stormydazze]

Last year my son's friend gave me a few convict cichlid~ nice fish> well a few weeks later my grandson tells me i have baby fish~ i'm like sure i do> well actually i do, about 75 babies... and NO ONE WANTS ANY~ I cant give them away! I have 2 55 gallon tanks full of these fishies~ lol~ how do I find homes for them?

[Stormydazze]

And no my lfs doesnt want anything to do with them either, all they said was don't dump them in the river.... like i would...

[Crispy]

time to get a predatory fish that will eat them maybe? lol, you might hafta post them up as feeder fish. at least you know it's a clean source.

[escamosa]

If I wasn't all the way over the other side of the would, I'd buy some!

[bignellm]

Try calling around to ma and pa style pet stores. They'll be more likely to take them off your hands than a chain style. I know my (lfs) would snatch them off your hands with a silly grin. If that doesn't help, maybe a local aquarium club can get you in touch with someone who wants them. Other than that, maybe a Craigslist classified ad or local paper?

[Lady Hobbs]

Same problem I had with firemouths. I culled pretty close to 400 babies. Not a pleasant thing to have to do but it has to be done. Separate the females and males or this will only continue every couple of weeks. Put a couple males in the tank with the young. Perhaps they may take care of the problem for you.

Pet stores don't make enough money off these fish to give them tank space and time for raising them to selling age. Stock in and stock out is how they make their money. Raising something for 3 months and then selling it for $3 is not worth their time.

[ddarko2215]

I'm not sure if this is the correct advise but I heard it somewhere. Someone said they put an empty 2 liter bottle in the tank with some crushed up fish food inside, all the babies swim in and can't get out, once they are in there you put the bottle in your freezer. It sounds cruel, but no worse that having other fish eat them I guess.

[CrunchyLeaf]

I'm not sure if this is the correct advise but I heard it somewhere. Someone said they put an empty 2 liter bottle in the tank with some crushed up fish food inside, all the babies swim in and can't get out, once they are in there you put the bottle in your freezer. It sounds cruel, but no worse that having other fish eat them I guess.

I'm pretty sure there are more humane ways to do that if your decision is to kill them.

[FinalJenemba]

If you do have to cull them, net them and drop them into a bowl of ice water. Its the most humane way. Do you have a cat?