Demons of the Night

Convict Cichlids are noted for their aggression. They will be aggressive towards other fish species, as well as their own. They are very intelligent in nature and can also be revengeful. These guys are known to pick, one target, at a time. These cichlids do most of the damage at night, when its dark. They will take their victim by surprise, by bursting at them with vicious bites. Convict Cichlids are smart enough to know that the eyes are a vital part of ones survival, and that's what they target first. If you observe them in the dark, you will notice, that they are partly maintaining their boundaries by warding off one another. They also launch attacks against other unsuspecting victims. Next morning you may notice a fish with all his fins torn up or bruised up real bad. You may also notice a fish with an eye or two, missing. So, if your keeping Convicts, be vigilant in the night as well and separate the victims.

Too Big to Get In

Female Convict Cichlids are much smaller than the males. Some males can get really big and nasty and they can sometimes attack their own mates and kill them. However, it has been observed that some smart-ass female convicts will pick places with small holes that are only big enough for them to squeeze in. The male stays out, as he is too big to enter. She interacts with him at the entrance and is safe from his temper tantrums. Where spawning is concerned, she lays the eggs inside the hole itself. The male still manages to get his sperm into the cave, but this is unobserved. Some eggs get lucky enough to hatch.

Crow Feeds Convict Cichlids

I have noticed lately that a Crow keeps visiting my aquariums quite often. At first I didn't mind it, but yesterday and today, I have noticed that my fish have eaten well. Their stomachs seem quite full these past few days. I am the only one who feeds them, so how did this happen? I took a good look at my aquarium and noticed that there were chunks of meat and bones lying around with most of the meat stripped off. It seemed more like bird meat. I have noticed that this Crow keeps bringing food for my fish nowadays. Its really surprising as to why would a damn bird do charity work.

Probably this could be a bait thingy that he's trying out. I have too many Convicts to tell if anyone is missing. I guess I will have to trust the Convicts to be smart enough not to fall for this trick. This is the only explanation that I can think of right now. ;)

Convict Cichlid - Even the Kids are Bad Asses

I needed to babysit 3 Goldfish. Two of them were, quite big and the third on was tiny. Since they were all Goldfish, and Goldfish always end up as punching bags, I dropped them into the tank full of Baby Convicts. I thought to myself, what the heck could those babies possibly do to those Goldfish, but to my surprise, after a while, when I returned to make sure all was good, I notice the Convict Kids picking on the tiny little Goldfish. They bruised him real bad.

So even as kids, these guys are merciless. They know who and what to target. So, what we learn here, is, "Big Goldfish and Baby Convict ok" but "Baby Goldfish and Baby Convict, BAD THING!"

Oh by the way, I transferred him into a spare basin. He is better now. ;)

Setting Up A Zero Maintenance Aquarium

Many love the idea of having a beautiful aquarium sitting in a good spot in their home, where everyone can see it most of the time. You are excited about setting it up. You setup all the decorations, plants and find the most colorful fish. So the aquarium setup is complete. You switch on the light and Oh yeah! It's beautiful.

But for how long, will it stay like that? A couple of days is all it takes for a brand new aquarium to get real messy. Things like ammonia, nitrites and nitrates build up and affect the health of the fish, algae blooms, dirt smothers the decorations etc.