# Convicts



## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

My 4 convicts are beginning to dominate every part of my tank very slowly, starting with the fact that one female hatched babies. I have about 25 fry swimming around in one area with the parents defending them while the other 2 are in some other area or chasing my ram all of a sudden. I'm thinking about taking the convicts back to my retailer, which I'm sure I can, but what will become of the fry? Will they end up dying without the protection from the parents? I kinda want to know since I want to save my ram and start a community tank rather than a "Let's terrorize the ram until he's dead" tank.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Convicts do not belong in an community tank. I would return all of them if that is your goal.


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## Gump (Aug 2, 2006)

+1 

Take the adults out and leave the fry, they will make a good snack for the rams. If they still have the egg yokes even better.


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

Yeah I plan on returning them tomorrow and either getting tetras or barbs. I even saw Blue Dempseys a while back, if they are still there would they go well in a community tank because I've heard they aren't like most cichlids. One last thing, even though I should post this in another thread, neons would be fine with rams right?


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## Gourami Swami (Jul 4, 2006)

Blue dempseys would straight up eat the rams


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

neons are ok with rams, but quarrantine the neons before putting them in with the ram. Neons and rams both seem to catch every fish disease out there. All new fish should be quarrantined, but for neons its essential.


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

even dwarf blue dempseys? they dont seem to get very big from what i gather. I also hear they are a great community fish. Sorry, maybe I mixed up electric blue with dwarf blue in that last post? Ill take into cosidertion about the neons, thanks.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Who says demseys aren't like most cichlids and will go in a community tank? The naming of a fish after a boxer should give you a clue to its temparment.


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

So I returned those nasty devils today, took forever to get them out of my tank, and purchased 4 cherry barbs, 4 red-eye tetras, 2 live plants (forgot the name), and 2 species of corycats which I don't remember, but they look really sweet. The ram looks 10 times happier and everything looks alot better. I also redid my setup from this:








before when I was unsure of how to decorate








after when I realized what I needed to do

I need to add more, but right now I'm out of cash. Thanks for the help everyone.


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

*Correction

The corys I purchased were Paleatus Corys


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## Gourami Swami (Jul 4, 2006)

No such thing as a "dwarf" blue dempsey. Blues get a couple inches smaller than regualr JD's but can still push 8".

The fish you bought sound pretty good.... But My expertise is with larger fish, maybe someone else should clarify if its a good mix.


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

yea I read your description about the dempseys on my other thread, I'll stop naming them as "dwarf blue dempseys." I'm sure my mix of fish is fine since I came home from a 3-day Boston trip and all of my fish were still alive and happy.


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