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I bought a pair of pink convicts 3 days ago.The male is 3 inches and the female is 2 inches will they still breed.And the female is really orange in the belly and the male is chasing her and flaring his gills at her what does this mean?They have dug many pits in the gravel but they have laid no eggs yet what does ths mean?I have rasied the temperture to 80 degress.Is it better to have the lights on or off during the spwaning process.Do they need a flower pot during spwaning or not please help.

Put a couple of small clay pots on there sides in the tank they prefer them to lay eggs in.

Convicts are very easy to breed and it sounds like they are about to.

The chasing is normal behavour and lights on or off it does not matter with these randy little devils.

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TONY The Proud Aussie

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[This message has been edited by oscar2001 (edited 06-08-2001).]

I have a pair of convicts just a little larger than yours and I haven't done anything special, but they seem to breed about every 4-5 weeks. I never see the eggs, just the fry as soon as they hatch. They do seem to like the rocks and caves alot.

Oscar2001 has the right idea with the clay pots. I also use a 2.5" pvc 45 degree elbow and the cons always lay their eggs in this instead of the orange pot.

Yesterday my marble con and a black con layed eggs. I think it has something to do with the full moon. Three times it happened for me with two different females.

To get them to breed, I do big water changes and feed them spirulina flake food. They dig that food. Also frozen brine shrimp once a week.

I notice that three days before the cons lay eggs. The female turn really black and her belly turns really red/orange. Her stomach also gets really big. And the male and female flare their gills at each other in the pvc elbow. They also do alot of body shaking and twitching. You will also notice them cleaning the site with their mouth and body.

I never seen them dig any holes. I wonder, maybe I have only 3/4" layer of gravel.

Goodluck, I hope this helped. My first time took kind of long also. They female was 3/4" long and the male was 2.5" long.

EC