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Haven't posted here on fishprofiles in a while, but continue my hobby. I have recently purchased what i thought are 3 female convicts. They were introduced into an established 55 gallon with 2 female Kribs and 1 male. All are doing well and actually Kribs seem to be more colorful and active among each other since I took out old tankmates consisting of Platys and Tetras (all community type fish) and replaced them with the Convicts. I noticed the other day that 2 of the convicts seemed to pair off and have dug a cone shaped "nest" in the gravel and layed eggs. They both seem to be guarding it while the other convict has settled into the opposite side of the tank. My question: Is it possible for females to lay eggs without a male present? And, how can I be sure I have all females? I will try to get some pics of them as I know this would help in figuring out their sexes.

Hopefully this works:

it didn't work

What type of convict do you have? DO you mean the yellow convict or convict cichlid?

McCollum

Here is the information I got for the convict cichlid.

Genderex can be determined by a bump on the head of the mature male.Males are also larger and have longer fins. Females have orange scales on their front underside.

If your speaking of the yellow convict:

Males will grow larger and may form a slight hump while females have a distinctive black circle in the middle of the dorsal fin.


McCollum

I bought them as Black Convict Cichlids...I read the profile on them too but it doesn't help too much because they all have that little bit of orange on the belly, but i've heard thats not a tell all sign. Plus, none of them are mature yet so I'm told they need to be mature for them to have that bump. I am just finding it starnge the way they both seem to be protecting the nest. Let's say the eggs got fertilized? When would I expect to see anything. They are little reddish balls right now and have been there at least the last 4 days or so.

Some male convicts with some orange/green tinge too. Since its been 4 days and the eggs are still amber and not white, they should be fertilized. Though female x female breeding occurs, eggs usually get fungused after 1-2 days.