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.

Can an Oscar and a Convict Cichlid Pair Up?

I had a female Oscar that was about 8" long and a male white convict cichlid that was 4" long. These two were too aggressive to house with any other fish. So I kept them together in one tank. They both seemed to respect each other’s boundaries and there was never any trouble.

But one day, I noticed that the convict was trying to entice the Oscar to pair up with him. He was doing the mating ritual with her, but she was least bothered. He just wasn’t big enough to impress her. Disgusted by his act, she would chase him away, every now and then.

Convict Cichlid - Hump on the Head

In the aquarium world, when one talks about humps, the first thing that comes to mind, is the Flower horn. That's one of the cichlid species that has been cross bred with different varieties of cichlids in order to achieve this characteristic.

But here, I'm not going to talk about the Flower horn Cichlid. Instead, I will talk about the Convict Cichlid. I have kept Convict Cichlids long enough to notice the adult males developing humps on their heads.

Controlling Convict Cichlid Aggression - The Struggle for Peace

Convict cichlids are highly aggressive in nature. It is your duty to try and control Convict Cichlid aggression to some extent. Convict ciclids can be aggressive towards their own kind, or towards other fish. The aggression level increases especially once they pair up. They become even more aggressive when they spawn. Now if you are stuck with too many of these fish in your tank, it will be your responsibility to control convict cichlid aggression. Now there are a few tricks that you can try out.

Cichlid Tank Decorations
By changing your tank decorations, you are giving them something else to worry about. The convicts get busy searching for new homes and settling down. So during this time there will probably be less picking on others. You can repeat this on a weekly basis to keep the aggression level to the minimum.