painterman

I have a pair with soon to have babies but in my tank there is 3 babies from previous batch that are about 1 inch or so long and the parents are being very aggressive with them as i am surprized that they are still alive. can i move mom and dad to another tank or do they need to stay with the soon to be babies. the problem is also i have 2 large castles in the tank they hide in them please help and i think the eggs are in 1 of them so i don,t want to disturb the eggs. it is so hard to catch them in the net. the tank is a hexagon 55 gallon as it is very tall on a stand.I have been waiting but parents are getting very aggressive with the 3 other babies. my wife will be very sad if the babies get eaten

SWilkins

Welcome to Fish Lore. I feel your pain convicts are hard to catch. I try to move mine at about 4-5 weeks of age before any new eggs are laid. Your best bet might be to move the three inch long babies out if you want the new eggs to hatch without disturbing them.

aquarist48

Good morning and WELCOME to Fish Lore. I agree with SWilkins. I would move the babies out before they get eaten. Good luck for some healthy fry!

btate617

Move the three other fish as the parents now see them as a threat with their new eggs and will end up killing them.
If you move the parents and leave the eggs, the eggs will not make it as the parents won't be there fanning the eggs.
If you move the eggs and the parents chances are they will eat the eggs once moved. But being convicts they will soon do it again.

One thing to think about also, what are you going to do with all the fry. Convicts are fairly common so many people run into problems trying to get rid of the fry. I had trouble giving them away years ago.

Good luck with the eggs!

Brian