Beeding Convicts / Trauma to Parents

[Fatima1917]

Hi, I am new at this so any help would be great!
I'm breeding Convicts this is my second batch in 29 gal. Tank.
The 1st batch, I let the fry get about 2 months old before trying to
catch them and that was not easy; they are so fast, I had to take everything out of tank to catch them, a few at a time.
2nd time was today & they were about 2 weeks old.
I thought it would be good to get them young.
I siphoned them out into bucket not easy either, they scatered & hid down
in gravel.
The worse thing was the trauma the parents went through.
Afterwards the female was beating up on the male for not being a good protector!
It was Sad.
Anybody have good way of getting fry without causing so much trauma?

 

[e!o!z!]

I wait until they get about a month old then get a few at a time. Take the parents out of the tank first and put into another tank then get the fry or you can wait till the fry get about three or four monthes and then get them out I preferr the first option better myself.

 

[spryandspringy]

I think you were anthropomorphising a bit when you said that the female was beating up the male for not being a good protector. More likely the removal of the fry just led to a new upheaval in the pecking order, and they were just sorting things out, or she was still in overdrive from freaking out when you removed the fry.

I always find it easier to remove the adults and leave the fry. When I notice a female is holding, I move her to my "nursery" tank. When the fry are only about a week old, I put her back in with the male and the rest of his harem. When I don't notice a female holding in time, I just scoop up as many of the fry as I can and put them in the nursery.

Perhaps I am being a bit callous, but convicts are SO easy to breed (I think they'd breed in a toilet bowl) that I really don't worry too much if I lose a few in transferring them. If you already have a breeding pair, you'll have dozens within a year, even if you make every mistake in the book.

 

[piranha45]

could put a divider in the parents' tank, too

 

[Fatima1917]

Thanx for the help!

 

[lemcc]

something i have found that works great is wait till late at night when they are all
bunch together
when their all together it would be easy to suck them up or use a net and scoop up gravel and all
whatever you do the late at night thing