More Conditioning

Timing by my South American Convict Cichlids was absolutely perfect. Wednesday morning, their fourth spawn decided to hatch. Unfortunately for the mother, she chose a lovely open spot in the Convict tank to show them off. I required no further invitation to quickly suck them all up into a separate container :)

Here they now sit:

They are a couple of days old so only one more day or so and they should begin free swimming. Currently, they are living off their egg sac (the big brown blob they're carrying around with them). As I only have the one pair being conditioned currently, I only require 6-8 Convict fry in the morning to feed them both. Live food is excellent for conditioning apparently, and so, obviously my Convicts thought they'd help out the cause :)

Once they begin free swimming, they'll need to be fed, so once again, live foods are the food of choice.

By tomorrow morning, my vinegar eel easy-harvesting machine will be good to go. On Friday evening, the female will go into the spawn tank for free roaming. She will still be fed blood worms/adult shrimp, and Convict fry. The male will have his tank moved alongside the spawn tank and the three-times-a-day uncarding sessions will continue till Saturday evening. The male will also continue with the same menu.

Saturday evening, the female will go into an isolation tube, and when settled, the male will go into the spawn tank. Both will be fed one last time before the male goes in.

Then the uncertain part starts. Hopefully the male builds a new nest fairly quickly. Hopefully the female continues to be very ready. Hopefully the male is not an idiot and doesn't chase the female for too long or too roughly once I release her (after he's made the nest). Hopefully they wrap before bedtime. Hopefully I can take the female out before I go to bed. Hopefully the male doesn't eat the eggs...and on it goes...