I'm not a newbie to fish, but somewhat new to cichlids. I understand convicts are the rabbits of the cichlid world by what I've read. I have 12 convicts that were all supposed to be female, but now I have fry and found a male. I also have another one that appears to be a male (now that I'm actually paying more attention) "guarding" a hiding area that another one is hiding in, so I assume I'm going to get more fry out of that one soon. I plan to give the fry away, put them up on craigslist, here, whatever, when they are big enough, but what I'm trying to figure out is how often they do spawn. I can put the two males in my other tank but I'm not sure if they'd terrorize my other fish, which are more docile, but can definitely hold their own. Any suggestions? Also how soon is it okay to remove the males from the tank? I don't want them going nuts and killing the fish in the other tank because they're angry (okay, how weird does that sound?). Even better, is there a way to keep them from breeding?

Well, welcome to the forum...to start we need to have an idea of the tank mates in the other tank you plan to move the males too, and also tanks size? They will spawn every three to four weeks so if you don't want thousands of fry move the males as soon as possible, (have water will spawn). Females have redish orange bellies and the males dont also males will grow a hump on the head if fed and cared for well.....just FYI for you to identify them better. That being said you wont get them to stop breeding unless you split them up also the fry will be hard to get rid because of them being so common. If you want fry remove the male after the wigglers are free swimming, if you dont want fry move the males before the eggs are fertilized.

Thanks for responding...the other tank is a 29 gal, I have two ancient plecos 12+ years, a few dannios and a gold gourami that was originally in my 150 gal tank and was being harassed by my other fish in there. I knew about the red/orange on the females and the two I suspect of being male don't have that. The males don't have a hump persay, but they are probably less then a year old. Every 3-4 weeks? Eek, I need to move them out fast.

The plecos would be fine, the gourami would most likely get harassed.

Depending on what sort of plecos they are, a very easy way to stop most (if not all) con breeding would be to put one of the plecos in with the cons. Make sure the tank has a decent day/night cycle, and the pleco will be happy to eat all the eggs it can when it's dark.

Another thing to consider is what's in your 150? If you don't mind a bit of extra work you can have a never ending supply of tasty snacks for your other fish.

By all means, they should be eating them out of house and home, but so far moms (I removed the males earlier today after two hours of trying to catch them) seem to be doing great jobs of scaring off everyone. Right now in my 150gal I have a 10" pleco, a parrot cichlid, a green sevrum, a tiger shark, a silver dollar, 3 ID sharks, a clown loach (the two others seemed to become a meal for someone) and a school of about 12 convicts. The adult convicts are pretty much the smallest things in the tank by far. I was surprised to even see any fry after the first couple of days. I suspect a few got munched on, because I could only count 18 off the first batch and I think they usually have quite a few more. The other female is still guarding her hidey hole though so I'm not sure what's going to show up out of that.

Right now I have the males in the other tank - they don't seem to be harassing the gourami, more being harassed by the plecos and picking on each other.

Ah ha.

I had thought the cons were in a tank, and you *also* had a different 150. The cons are most likely pretty well dug in at this point, and there isn't anything in there that's bastard enough to fight off two adult cons to get at the fry.

Slowly a good bunch of the fry will get picked off, but you will have survivors. Then, er. I'm not really sure what you'd could do with them. I have many many things that eat cons, so I never have a problem getting rid of them.

I'm planning on putting them up on craigs list for free when they get big enough. At least I finally learned how to ID a male properly. I originally got the cons when I bought two ID's off a guy and he offered them (for free). I shoulda known better...lol.

Well stuff happens, but it is a good learning experience and fun to watch!

It is fun! I emailed someone on Craig's List who put them up for free when they got a few months old and he said they got taken quickly. That gives me some hope

So, the fry from one cichlid are still hanging about their mom. They're still really teeny. The other female who was paired with another male is still hanging out in the hollowed out log thing I have in the tank and chasing away anyone who gets too close. I assume I'll see more fry soon from her unless I pulled the male out early enough. Does anyone know the time frame from egg laying to free swimming with these guys?

If the eggs have been placed chances are they were fertilized by the male as the female was placing them. If they are fertilized it takes 2 to 3 days before you get wrigglers IME.

That sounds about correct dawg!

my male cons always had a green belly or at least a fairly good shade of green

I have about 12 wigglers about an cm long now. They're cute. Luckily the other female's eggs didn't work out.