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Originally posted by Danmoquin.

Guys I wrote this article back in June and it was published in the PVAS monthly newsletter. It tells my story of convict-keeping and breeding. Please, give me some feedback.

Breeding The All Too Common Convict Cichlid

Two years ago when I started the hobby I purchased a juvenile striped Archocentrus Nigrofasciatum . When I got it I had no idea of the proper care, diet, or tank conditions it required. At the time of purchase it was probably about a third of an inch (SL). I put it in a 10 gallon tank with 2 Xiphophorus Maculatus, which disappeared after about a month. I fed it Wardley flake food and did 10% water changes once a month. (Luckily I chose a hardy fish!)

I have now learned that Convict Cichlids are Central American and are found from Guatemala to Costa Rica and Honduras to Panama. They like a pH of 6.5-7.5 and temperatures of 72-80 degrees but, will tolerate 60-86 degree temperatures. Convicts are also hardy enough to cycle a tank.

I kept him (he turned out to be a male) for about a year and a half, and cycled seven different tanks with him! I also noticed that in the four smaller tanks that he was placed in that he would build a nest by pushing the gravel away from the corner of the tank. I could not figure out why since there was no female in the tank but, this strange behavior continued. So one day less than a month ago I went to James Tropical Fish and purchased a beautiful 2″ female. She had beautiful red spots on her stomach, blue tinted fins, and 7 or 8 full black vertical stripes. My male was at that time close to 3 1/2″ and also had full stripes and blue tinted fins.

I placed the female in a 20 gallon long aquarium with the male who had been in there for about two months. Inside of the tank there were a few plastic plants, Java Moss, and one peice of slate tipped sideways againt the left wall. Well, three days after I got the female she laid her eggs on the slate. She laid between 100 and 150 eggs and fanned them for four days until there were wigglers. She even picked off the dead white eggs. The male showed no interest in the eggs or the wigglers until three days later when the fry were free swimming. After this, the female began to drift away but, the male travelled everywhere with the fry.

I left the fry with the parents and now have about 75 that are three weeks old. I’ve never fed brine shrimp or microworms to the fry, just crushed up flakes. I feed the parents frozen mysis shrimp, frozen blood worms, krill, earthworms, banana, garlic, and Sera Vipan flake food. I also do 50-75% water changes on them weekly. And I do know that Convict Cichlids have been arround forever and are easily available but, the ones that you see in the store now are pale and discolored. So if you take the time and keep up with those water changes, you really can raise a prize winning fish.

Convict Cichlid

(Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum)

Origin: Central America
Temp: 70 – 82°F (20 – 28°C)
pH: 7-7.5
Temperament: very aggressive when spawning, not a community fish
Adult Size: 4”-5”
Tank Size: 20 Gallons
Feeding: Omnivorous, eats everything. Fry will nibble at algae.
Breeding: Super easy to breed when they start they don’t stop. The convict is a great cichlid for a your first fish to breed.

Care Information: Easy to care for. Convicts like to dig and will do it often exspicially when breeding. They prefer to have a cave to stay in, but they are not shy. They also like to redecorate the tank.

Breeding Information: The males are bigger with noticeably longer fins. The females have orange bellies and are smaller then the males. Just put a male and female together and wait. They will lay the eggs on a flat surface on a rock or in a cave. The eggs will hatch in 3-4 days. The parents will take care of the fry for a while, but after 1 or 2 weeks will start to eat the fry. So the fry should be removed after a week.

Salvini Cichlid

Scientific name – Cichlasoma (Nandopsis) Salvini

Common name(s) – Salvini, Salvin’s Guapote, Tricolour Guapote, Yellowbelly Guapote.

Distribution – throughout Mexico, Belize, and surrounding area, different variants occur in set locations.

Max Size – Males 10 inches+, females <7 inches.

Preferred temperature – 78-84 degrees Farenheight (some variants have been found in water as warm as 90 degrees).

ph – approx. 7-7.5

Temperment – Highly aggressive

Feeding Habits – Omnivorous with strong piscovorous tendencies.

Min. Tank size for single specimen (no tankmates) – 40g

Min. Tank size for breeding pair (no tankmates) – 65g+

Reccomended tank size for single specimen with tankmates – 75g+

Reccomended tank size for breeding pair with tankmates – 100g+

Sexing – Females have a solid black blotch on the spiny rayed dorsal fin, and depending on locale, possibly a black opercular blotch as well. Males get much larger and lack the dorsal blotch, and the opercular blotch on males is typically red with a blue halo.

Additional info:
Nandopsis Salvini hails from riveriene and lagoon environments from Mexico, Belize, and surrounding areas. Depending on the locale, the species has great variation in colour. Typically, most captive stock available comes from a few select rivers in Guatemala. However, it is the lagoon specimens which are the most colourful, especially those which inhabit the Tabasca lagoons in Mexico, or those from Belize. Male specimens from these lagoons typically display an overall blue shade with blood, almost wine red stomachs, and the distribution of the red is incredible, covering the whole ventral area. Females from these areas are often a fire hydrant yellow with bold black patterns outlined in blues, and the tone of red is typically brighter than the males’. The average male N. Salvini attains a length of around 7-8 inches, although specimens up and over 10 inches have been reported. Females are alot smaller, averaging 4.5-5 inches, and rarely pass 6 inches. In the home aquarium, several problems may be encountered concerning the husbandry of N. Salvini, most particularly the aggression. There’s no other way to put it – N. Salvini is generally a highly aggressive cichlid, with incredible speed, endurance, and power for a fish it’s size. The large canine/pseudocanine teeth aid the salvini in capturing prey, and make efficient weapons in battle, and between the size of the teeth, the strength with which the fish can strike, and the speed/manoueverability of the species, N. Salvini can rapidly destroy most cichlids it’s size. A breeding pair is particularly lethal and can easily terrorize/kill fish even twice their size. The bright colours of N. Salvini serve as a warning, and most predatory fish don’t find it worth the trouble of dealing with a pair of pocket battleships to get a few fry. A solitary salvini is typically a shy and inactive fish, the colours often wash and leave the fish looking rather unattractive. However, if kept in a community or as a pair, the colours return and the fish become a bit more animated, guarding their territory with the vigor and strength of a fish twice their size, and often performing routine inspections of their territories in search of intruders or possible prey. In it’s natural habitat, young N. Salvini generally consume small invertebrates and tiny fish, and as they grow, the size of the food items grows as well, and crayfish, freshwater shrimps, and even small frogs are added to the list. In captivity, Salvinis aren’t the most open eaters, often darting out of a hiding place, looking for a few moments, making another dash, stopping again, inspecting the food item for a few more seconds, then a much more rapid dash is made, the prey is struck and the salvini retreats to a hiding place to consume a meal. Feeding does not pose a problem, as they typically accept the standard cichlid fare of pellets, frozen foods, etc. Gut loaded feeders, crickets, earthworms, and aquatic invertebrates make excellent supplements. To bring out a Salvini’s colours, feed foods high in carotenoids, such as frozen prawns which are typically available from the supermarkets. Tankmates for N. Salvini should be well able to take care of themselves, and if tank size permits, it’s a good idea to select fish which will, in the long run, end up growing larger than the salvini. If you have the space, red devils, managuensis, losiellei, tetracanthus, cyanoguttatus, carpintis, istlanum, grammodes, bartoni all make good tankmates. In many cases an adult male salvini would have no problem defending it’s territory from the vast majority of the species listed, and a breeding pair could likely dominate a tank containing any of the above. Keeping 2 adult male salvinis in a tank less than 150g is nearly impossible, as they have an adament hatred for each other.

Additional notes on breeding:
I had a breeding program for Nandopsis salvini a few months back, and I’ve bred them dozens of times. Egg eating or spousal abuse is generally a sign of an unbonded pair, or immaturity. Completely normal, just keep an eye on them, as a male salvini can literally kill a female in minutes, and once the male’s fed up, the female doesn’t have much hope. Once they breed do NOTHING to disturb the parents – an unbonded pair often eats their own eggs if disturbed too much. Also, you may notice that the female won’t allow the male near the eggs/brood – this is completely normal for unbonded pairs and happens rather frequently. Once the eggs hatch however, you’re basically home free from there, as parents rarely eat thier own fry. At this stage they will become horrendously aggressive, and you’ll have to keep an extra close eye on the male, as this is the point when he’s most likely to do damage to the female. Often, the male gets carried away with the brood care signals and you’ll see him strut around the tank at a very fast pace, fins and gills flared out, then he may/may not make a charge at the female. Most of the time he’ll turn away at the last second when the female flares up, but I’ve seen several males smash right into the females and bite them up. I actually lost a female that way – the male hit her full speed on her flank and I’m guessing an organ was ruptured. Once the fry are free swimming, the male calms down a bit but the female gets worse. Spats between the pair are far and few between in this stage. Feed the fry on crushed flakes and frozen/live baby brine shrimp. For maximum colour results, feed cyclop-eeze as soon as they are large enough to take it, as it has very high astaxanthin/carotenoid levels and fry colour up VERY quickly when fed this. Fry are slow growing and best left with the parents until they reach at least 0.5 inches, prefferably 3/4 inches. If removed before that, they do very poorly and growth is exceedingly slow. However, if the parents are showing signs of laying eggs again, remove the current batch of fry. Once the fry get about 1/2-3/4 inches, they can be graduated from artemia nauplii to adult brine shrimp. However, they are still rather delicate at this stage, and this is when the losses of the fry become very evident, as the typical nasty temper that the species is reknowned for starts to come in, and you’ll notice the fry taking up individual territories. This is when you can separate the best looking of the fry. What I do is divide up a tank, take each baby that shows promise for colouration, and give him/her a section. After each fry is established, throw in 2 or 3 runts with each baby for him/her to dominate. Dominant fry grow more quickly and tend to display more vibrant colouration. The rest of the culls can be given away or used as feeders. Once the fry near 3/4-1 inch, the dorsal/opercular blotches start patching in and standard male/female differentiation methods become applicable. By the time they reach 2-2.5 inches, they are sexually mature and ready to breed. However, breeding requires alot of energy, and at that easly age they are still growing, and their growth energy stores will be severely drained, thus slowing down growth even more. I’d leave the breeding to specimens up and over 3.5 inches. Within the first year, fry can reach 4-5 inches, possibly 6. After they reach 6.5 inches, the growth slows dramatically and they begin to fill out. Expect most males to max out at around 7-8 inches (although the odd male with the right genes and conditions can reach/exceed 10 inches). 5 inches for a female is standard, and anything above 5.5 is exceptional. I personally have never seen nor heard of a female passing 6.5 inches.

Finally, the cycling process of the cichlid aquarium demystified and broken down into plain english for the beginner starting a cichlid aquarium.

Cichlid Aquarium Cycling 101:

1. cichlid goes in tank
2. cichlid eats some food, lets some rot at the bottom
3. cichlid urinates and defecates
4. uneaten food and urine and feces form toxic ammonia
5. toxic ammonia burns cichlids gills, eyes, fins, skin, etc
6. ammonia devouring bacteria that occur naturally all around us colonize in the tank and begin feeding on the ammonia, and multiplying
7. ammonia eating bacteria also has to relieve itself, and its waste is what we call nitrItes. Nitrites are toxic to fish as well, not quite as bad as ammonia burning though.
8. other naturally occuring bacteria arrive and devour the nitrItes and multiply
9. nitrIte eating bacteria also has to relieve itself, and its waste is what we call nitrAtes.
10. nothing in freshwater consumes nitrAtes, with the exception of a LARGE amount of water plants. you do a water change to lower nitrates.

Now, none of this information is scientific, but it’s straight forward and is on the general right track. if the tank already had these bacteria in them, we wouldn’t have to subject the fish to the potentially deadly consequences of going to the bathroom.

Lets pose a few questions now:

Q: What can I do to cycle my cichlid aquarium?
A: You can buy cheap aquarium fish from the store and throw them in your water. this is the most commonly used method (besides those of you who throw your expensive fish in the same water, but of course you’ll have no need to do this anymore when armed with the above knowledge! ) and this method works. you can also add capfuls of regular unscented (make sure there is nothing else in it) household ammonia found at your grocery store, or a wal-mart, for example. The absolute best way to cycle your tank is to use filter media and/ or gravel from an existing cycled aquarium and add it to yours. The bacteria are already present.

Q: How do i know if the cycle is working?

A: you initially need three test kits (besides a ph test kit). These kits are labeled as Ammonia, NitrIte, and NitrAte test kits. after a few days of adding ammonia to your tank daily, check your ammonia. check it every day or every other day. you should notice the level rising for a while, but then one day, it will lower. as it lowers it should keep lowering. Check for NitrItes. follow the same steps with this as you did with the ammonia kit. when it lowers, check for NitrAtes. the presence of nitrAtes means your well on your way! when ammonia and nitrItes are at 0 and you’re detecting nitrAtes, do a water change and add your fish (not too many fish at once, you’ll push the cycle past it’s limit if your ammonia dosing was too low).

Q: My aquarium is already cycled, but i’m detecting ammonia, what happend?

A: overfeeding beyond the tanks current “bio-bacteria” load, or something dying in the tank will cause a surge. do a water change, cut back on feeding, find and remove whatever is decaying in your tank.

Q: but i have tough aquarium fish, i heard they can handle the cycle? is this true?

A: sure some aquarium fish can handle it. it’s like smoking. you poison yourself and you might be okay, or it may cause you to get cancer etc., which is a reduction in your health, well being, and life span. any tough cichlid that is used to cycle the tank, if they live can almost assuredly be found to have damaged gills or eyesight, due to the burning that is caused by concentrations of their own wastes. risk it if you want to, that $400 dollar fish might live a few years longer though, if you excercise patience.