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Ok, in earlier posts, I stated that I was trying to find a "Definate Male" Convict. Well, low & behold I scored,LOL!! At the time, I had 2 Females and they were getting along fine, one was a little more aggressive than the other but they both ate & grew & etc at the same rate and everything. Well, after I scored the Male (finally) one of the Females "dissapeared" ,for real. There was/is nothing else in the tank but one Algae Eater. I mean, I can not find the 1st sign of her. No dead body, no bones, no nothing.

Anyways, the remaining 2 Convicts (1 female & 1 male) were/are doing great. They dig their holes all over & I had my first batch of Convict Fry 1 week ago. I mean they had TONS of babies. They took really good care for them & protected them as good as any parent I ever seen. Well, I read that after 2 weeks, it is a good idea to remove the parents so they don`t eat their fry to make room for more on the way. My question is, it was barely a whole week and my parents ate every last babie they had - what did I do wrong?

The tank is a 37 gal Eclipse System with a strong filtration. Again, they only other thing in the tank is one Algae Eater that keeps to himself & the Convicts don`t even bother with him either. I have one nice sized cave in the center and a small cave (the algae eater lives in,lol) off to the side of it. The 1st "Nest" they dug was HUGE!! I wa almost afraid the larger cave would cave in on their eggs they barried, but it didn`t. Now, they have smaller holes dug all over the place & recently started to re-dig the original spot again. I am guessing they are preparing for new arrivals & I was wondering what I should do to get some of the babies to survive this time round? Any help/info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks ahead of time to all those that reply. Have a good one & be safe - Peace!!

hi keith, sorry to hear about your losses! thats a real mystery where that female convict dissapeard off 2! did it just happen one day? or were u away for a while when it happened?

my friend has convicts and she has a pair the bred last month and the parents are still with the babies and going strong (the mum really is the boss tho, the dad usually just stays in a pot away from trouble!) mind you there are only about 40-50 fry id say, maybe some where eaten i duno. the tank is alot smaller then your setup to. it just had acouple of pots for hiding.

i heard that convicts may eat the babies if they are stressed or frightened/threatened, the they always made sure they didnt do anythin too abrupt round the tank. is your tank in a busyish area of the house?

many american cichlids have to spawn a couple of times before their parenting skills kick in. I'd just give them some time and if they are still eating the eggs after 3-4 spawns, then I'd suspect something might be wrong.

as for the other female, the pair could have killed her and started eating her and let the pleco finish her off. or, she might have jumped out of the tank and be out of sight somewhere on the floor around the tank. another possibility is she might be hiding in some extremely small spot in the tank where you don't think she could get into.

sumthin_fishy = The missing Convict did just "happen one day". It was weird cause after I scored the male - the 2 females I already had were always getting along & everything. Then, 2 days later - GONE! One of the females (actually it was the more dominant female of the 2 females) that disappeared. When the fry first hatched - I thought (at first) that I had a "funk" problem one day. Then, the closer I looked I saw it was fry,LOL. At first, I counted well over 75 babies - I stopped counting after 80-some. Then 7 days later over 1/2 of em were gone & the day after that - they were all gone. Now, it is back to the 2 original parents, who are planning for new babies soon (I`m guessing) with all the wholes that are dug now,LOL!!

Jason = Thank you for that information. I have always had some form of Cichlids, just never Convicts til now. Thats good to know. As far as the missing female - I thoroughly searched throughout the entire tank & can not even find a sign that she was even there,LOL. No bones, no nothing. I`m sure she was eaten by the other 2 Convicts because I have never heard of an Algae Eater eating (a healthy)live fish, but I could be wrong.

Thanks again for all the information, i truely appreciate it!!