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Ok, I recently acquired two Blue Convicts, one male, and one female. The guy in the store told me about how to breed them, except they aren't acting the way he said they would. They aren't doing anything wrong, and they don't seem to be upset or anything of that nature, but they don't seem to want to breed as he said they would. In an attempt to figure this out, I went to the fish profiles, and looked up the convict. Now, I realize that the blue and the regular convict may be slightly different, so I looked up similar species, and found Pseudotropheus demasoni. This fish in a mouth breeder, which is totally different from the egg-laying approach that I've had so far. Can anyone help me out with this?

What is meant by mouthbrooder is that the cichlid will actually take the eggs (after they are laid) and put them in it's mouth. After the eggs hatch, the fry come out, and do regular baby fish things. If they feel threatened, they will go right back into their parents mouth. By the way, what kind of behavior did the guy at the store tell you to expect? And how are your fish acting?

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

ok, well, that clears quite a bit of it up, although the guy said they would be keen on each other, and while they're not "fighting" the male seems to not care for the female being in his little cave too much. They've been in there before, but usually he'll chase her out, and then go back in. He's not hurt, and neither is she, but he seems to be guarding it, even though there is nothing there. Normally I'd just say he's oddly territorial, but the guy said that they wouldn't be like this with the female. Also, if the fish keep the fry in their mouths, how do you know if they have any eggs? do you just have to wait until they hatch? or is there another way? Other than that, they're just acting like normal fish, swimming, eating, and following my finger on the glass. Thanks for your help!

Normally you can tell if there are any eggs in the fish's mouth, because the throat area will be much larger than normal, and it will bulge.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

a convict and psd. demasoni are two totaly different kinds of cichlid the only way they're simmilar is that there both cichlids. do you have a picture of it. is it either of these
http://www.fishprofiles.com/profiles/fw/profile.asp?id=Archocentrus+nigrofasciatus
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/p_demasoni.php
there is no such thing as a blue convict unless its dyed. if you can tell which one they are then we can help

[span class="edited"][Edited by greenmonkey51 2004-08-26 16:10][/span]

scroll to the bottom of the page, directly under where it says "cichlid information"

that fish is sometimes referred to as a blue convict. That fish is a female honduran red point. also, there is speculation that most blue convicts sold in lfs are hybrids of honduran red points and regular convicts. and I believe platinum convicts are hybrids of Hondurans and pink convicts. anyway, I doubt the fish in question is a Honduran red point as they are still pretty rare and usually available only through online breeders/importers.

jason

I know it's hard to tell the coloration of the entire fish, but here's a close up shot of one of my male Honduran Red Points. As I said, this species is often called 'blue convicts'.

this is a male.


And here's a female.


Jason [/font][/font]

[span class="edited"][Edited by jason_r_s 2004-08-27 03:12][/span]

Like Jason already said the Blue Convict is a hybrid of a Honduran red point and a regular Convict. This creation started to come out of a Florida fish farm which is now flooding the market with them in the past few month. I first saw them 4 month ago in 1 store and now you can find them almost everywhere around here. For sexing it is still the same as a regular convict. The female should have orange / pink scales on her belly which the male doesnt have. They will lay eggs inside a pot or under a rock or anywhere else they feel like they can protect the eggs from any other fish. Eggs should hatch after 3-4 days and after another 3-4 you should see free swimming baby convicts.

For sexing it is still the same as a regular convict. The female should have orange / pink scales on her belly which the male doesnt have.

I'd be careful trying to sex them this way. This is not an accurate way of sexing Honduran red points as I have both males and females with orange/red scales on the belly. The blue convicts, being hybrids of both species, are likely to show characteristics of both species. This means you could wind up with a male that has orange/red on the belly.

Jason