fishingman001

the female in my tank started to ignore the fry and claim her breeding spot.
the male continues to protect the fry.
the female occasionally goes over and harasses the fry.
i have now moved the fry into a breeders net but the male still protects them.
the fry are only about 1-1.5 cm. will he ever leave the fry and go back to the female? her belly looks like it is going to pop.

bolivianbaby

When were the fry spawned?

If this help you any, I siphon the fry out and put them in a separate tank inside the breeders net. This triggers another spawn. However, some of my cons spawn monthly, others once every other month, regardless of when I remove the fry. Once the fry get around two months old (if I raise them), I turn them loose inside the "fry" tank.

I hope this helps!

fishingman001

I don't have another tank and I can't set another up. They spawned late November.

Now the male is on the left side (he goes over to the right side to look at the fry every so often) and the female is on the right side. They are both in their separate caves.

edit: they go up to each other and puff up their gills and lip lock. I don't know if that's fighting but they don't look happy.

bolivianbaby

Convicts are cichlids and cichlids are crazy. I'm guessing they'll spawn for you again probably late January, early February. They may be "every other month" spawners. I have a pair that I remove the fry as soon as they're free-swimming and they still spawn every other month. That's just them.

Also, with the fry in the tank, that will increase the time between spawns. That's good for the female to get a break.

Hope this helps!

fishingman001

yeah it does. thank you very much.