Do I need to remove babies from tank?

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Gambusia
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Jun 16, 2016
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My convict cichlids had a bunch of babies. Do I need to remove the babies from the tank? There are 6 tiger barbs and another pink female convict that go no where near the babies.The mother stays close to babies and the father attacks everything. The mother will also do this. Its a 55 gallon fish tank.
convict babies parents.jpg convict babies.jpg
 
My convict cichlids had a bunch of babies. Do I need to remove the babies from the tank? There are 6 tiger barbs and another pink female convict that go no where near the babies.The mother stays close to babies and the father attacks everything. The mother will also do this. Its a 55 gallon fish tank.
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They will be fine if you remove them the pair will breed again soon after you remove the fry. What is your plan for all the fry you are about to own.
 
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I would just let them amaze you at how good they can be as parenTs. That will hold off on another spawn, if you take those fry out I bet they will spawn just as fast
 
I wouldn't worry too much unless it is the first spawn. If it is they may end up eating their own babies or not doing anything against your other fish trying to eat them.

They make a good food source for your other fish though. Just let them sort it out or they can overrun that 55 gallon, the weak will die off, you want to only keep the strong ones anyway. Also if you are worried about your filter sucking them up I would put an old net or a sponge over the intakes. Most lfs probably won't take them for credit. Might want to find someone on here that can use them as food tho or post a craigslist ad when they get almost an inch long.

Convicts are fun!
 
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I'd leave them in there. I always let my other fish sort out the population. It was cool to see how well the parents defended them but inevitably my other cichlids quickly learned to work together to take out some babies.
 
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Once they hatch you can move them to a 10 gallon or 20 long to save them and get them on nutritious food but its up to you.

My bigger female laid maybe 200 eggs about a month and a half ago. Out of that I maybe have 30 decent sized babies left and I haven't even been feeding them except for particles from the other fish munching. My big pair are extremely good parents too. Something funny happened though. She laid even more eggs and they hatched, but while they were hatching she let the bigger babies eat all of the wigglers haha. She looks ready to spawn again.

They really don't stop breeding even with already existing fry. I'm sure I will have at least 4 or 5 nice babies to sell (hopefully marbled cons which I have been wanting to sell a line of) in another 2 months. I will probably use any non marbleds as food for the other fish.
 
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im breeding angelfish so I don't know about cichlids eating their young but ive never seen my angelfish eat their young, its a big controversy in breeding fish.
 
im breeding angelfish so I don't know about cichlids eating their young but ive never seen my angelfish eat their young, its a big controversy in breeding fish.
k right now theyre all still alive. parents still protect them and lead them around and theyre starting to venture around more
 
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