cheevi

i have 6 convicts in my 55 gallon, 3 male, 3 female. obviously hoping for pairs. the first [air was introduced alone in the tank a day before the other four and are doing well defending a cave. awesome. but, the other 2 males and 2 females i put in the tank the following day have yet to settle down with each other at all, and are just being aggressive. in fact, the 2 males are smaller than the females and seem to be bullied by them. any ideas?

bolivianbaby

Welcome to Fishlore!

3 pairs in a 55g tank is a war zone. Setting up territories with "lines of sight broken" may help a little bit, but I'm not sure it'll resolve the aggression issue. My best advice would be to not have more than one pair in a 55g tank.

With convicts, if you put one male and one female together, you have a very good chance they'll pair off. They're not to picky when it comes to mates.

Hope this helps!

convictleoparddempseyplec

As long as they have tons of hiding places for everyone it will also help them get a long better. Convicts are non-stop breeders though if you have more then 1 pair be warned they spawn quick and many times and with any thing. I got around 100-150 convicts in my 55 gallon now (3 original, 30-60 first batch, 2nd batch 30+, and 2 week old third batch of 50-60) that came from 1 male and 2 females and got no where to give them a new home yet. They are like cockroaches or rabbits lol... Good Luck!!