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The bar-room brawler and reproducing rabbit of the fish world. This cichlid is a mean S.O.B. that will hold it's own against fish more than twice it's size!

Quick stats:

Listed tank sizes are the minimum
Size:	5-6 inches (15cm) full grown males; females an inch or two smaller
Tank:	At least 20 gallons, 25 per mated pair (24 inches)
Strata:	Lower middle
PH:	6.0 to 8.0 (very wide range tolerated if kept stable)
Hardness:	Soft to neutral
Temperature:	68°- 80°F (20° to 27° C) (wide range tolerated if kept stable)

Classification:

Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Cichlidae
Genera:	Herichthys (Archocentrus)
Species:	nigrofaciatus

 

Common name: Convict Cichlid , zebra cichlid Image gallery: Additional species photographs Discuss: Badmans' Forum

Status:

Not in IUCN Red List

Distribution

Central America: Guatemala, El Salvadore, Costa Rica & Panama

General cichlid body type

Also known as the "zebra cichlid"; both this and "convict" are good descriptions of this species. It has black vertical bars on it's bluish-lavender body. There is usually a pink tinge to it's belly, and well-kept fish will have an iridescent pattern on their fins and sides. Both the dark stripes and pink belly become more pronounced during breeding. Males usually have darker stripes and pointier fins (in addition to their usually larger size), and fully mature ones will sometimes have a bit of a hump on their head. Females have pinker bellies and are usually rounder. There is also a pink albino strain.

This is perhaps one of the most forgiving fish in the pet trade... they are amazing survivors and adaptors! However, they are not for the weak of heart and for those fishkeepers with peaceful community tank fish. These fish are NOT known for their gentle dispositions, and need to be kept with other aggressive, larger fish that will hold their own (it can and will harass some fish to death). They have been known to pick fights with Oscars more than 3X's their size, and win! Best kept alone or with their own kind, but fascinating fish to watch.
Convicts are among the easiest bred fish in captivity, but watch out, make sure you know what you are getting yourself into when you get a pair (see below). This fish has no special requirements at all and is extremely hardy. It is great for beginners who are having trouble keeping more delicate species alive, but they must be prepared to see this territorial fighter in action if they want to keep them with other species, even other bad-attitude cichlids like red terrors and jack dempseys. If kept in the right setup, you will really see their amazing colors and behaviors come through--they are very entertaining fish. They can be fed a variety of foods, including flakes, cichlid pellets, frozen/live brine shrimp, blood worms, and vegetables like chopped-up spinach leaves. They are omnivorous, and not picky eaters, but very greedy.

Unparticular, basic setup with hiding places (preferentially with fake/live plants)

 

Breeding:

Someone once described breeding convicts as "just add water and fish", and this is pretty accurate! An excellent fish for beginners to start breeding, but just be careful what you wish for... these fish breed at the drop of a hat and will produce many young. The male and female will pair off, and do a mating dance that involves shaking their heads at one another. They prefer to lay their eggs on the inside of a flower pot, as shown in the picture, and both parents will usually dig a depression in the gravel around it. A breeding pair will vigorously defend their territory against encroaching fish, and will quickly push all the other inhabitants of the tank to the opposite corner. They are one of the very best when it comes to parental care, and will sometimes bury newborn fry when they are threatened, so don't be alarmed if they go missing for a day. Fry usually hatch in under a week, and take another 3-4 days to consume their yolk sacs and become free-swimming (do not feed during this time). Once swimming on their own, they can be fed live microworms. They will also take fry powder foods and then eventually graduate to flake food.

Buy now from
liveaquaria.com

Convict Cichlid Click photo to buy From Live Aquaria Black Pink

Your comments:

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From: Joe Date:03/27/2008 These fish are the most aggressive fish I have ever had. (And I have been in the hobby for about 20 years now!!!) They mix well with oscars, Jacks,plecos, pictus cats, and sometimes firemouths. You must be very careful when selecting tank mates. Kribensis and convicts in my experience are very aggressive towards each other. My Male convict is 7 inches and the female about 4 or 5 inches. They hold there own, and will defend there broods (fry), against ANYTHING ELSE IN THE TANK!!!! I have four 13 inch oscars in my 220 gallon tank and two huge 15 inch plecos And a huge batch of kribensis. And the convicts when defending their fry will attack my 13 inch oscars when getting to close and win the fight!!! A truly amazing fish that is basically a true hand full./ I bought two small convicts a while back and had them with my oscars and the convicts where breeding already at like only 2 inches and one of my oscars got to close and the little 2 inch convict went up against my 13 inch oscar and the oscar got annoyed and swallowed the convict whole!!! It was pretty funny. So I had to raise the convicts I currently have in the 220 in a 75 gallon tank to get them big enough to go in with the massive oscars. All in all a great fish just make sure to give them lots of space, good filtration, good food, and good tank mates. Never put convicts in a community tank, I don't care if its 10000 gallons, the convicts will kill the other fish in the community tank. From: Paul Date:11/29/2007 I bought a male convict and put him in a 40 gal with a med size goldfish and a small electric yellow. Then I read this site and after reading about how they are such prolific breeders, I got him a female companion. My tank has lots of plastic as well as natural rock formation. The male spent the first 2-3 days following the female and opening his gills at the female to impress her I guess. He moved gravel out of two places as if he's making a nest but the female seemed uninterested. So I went and bought two 3" ceramic flower pots... to my surprise they both avoided the pots for the first few days but on the 4th day I spotted the female laying eggs and the male fertilizing the eggs inside the flower pot. It was a neat ritual; they would trade places back and forth until she laid about 500 or so eggs. Then for the next three days she stayed in the pot hovering over her eggs constantly fanning them with her fins. After exactly 3 days, I noticed the mother was out of the pot and inside the rock caverns and the eggs that were in the flower pot looked inhabited so then I noticed she had moved her little wrigglers into the rock caverns where they rested on a ledge. The male pretty much stood guard since the mating ritual and his job was to chase the goldfish away (pretty much left the little electric yellow alone though). the goldfish pretty much has his fins and scales nipped away and only stays in the opposite corner of the tank now, scared sh**less. The mother is just hovering over her fry and I believe it will be another 2 days until the fry are off their yolk sack and free swimming. What I did was take the cotton like filter material and wrapped it around the intake of the bio filter so the fry won't get sucked in. going to petsmart tonight to buy miniature fry food; think that is the best thing for them. All in all these convicts are fun to raise and seeing how they are behaving as responsible parents is quite entertaining. From: Jacob Date:1/26/2007 A very forgiving cichlid, they definitely are prolific breeders. Mine just bred in my tank, and have a bazzillion babies on their first try (I estimate around 150) I used these details to help them breed: 1. Get a 55 gallon tank for them ALONE 2. Find two healthy convicts, I used different pet stores for them 3. Let them settle in for two weeks, at 75 degrees F 4. Crank up the heat to 80 and feed them live guppies. 5. wait. And that's it, I got mine to breed in 3 weeks. From: dnorm Date:12/31/2006 I have a pair of convicts, for more than a year. They have produced babies four times, but only one brood survived. That was the group that I left in the tank alone, once they had gotten about an eighth of an inch long. (I fed them the pellets and flakes ground to a powder with a mortar and pestle.) I have twenty of them, and they are from 1/2 inch to 3/4 long now, and I have spread them to the other tanks, with other fish. The other broods eventually became food, and the one, when I left it alone with the mama. I figured that maybe because I had taken away the threats of other fish, mama saw them as food instead of children. But the recent batch got eaten too, by mama or the betas, I guess. Mama went all dark since the babies are gone. Both parents were very protective of the babies at first, but within a few weeks, they all disappeared. I am going to go back to leaving the babies alone in the tank. From: Bradley Date:9/29/2006 Hello, I am a new convict fish breeder and have had major success. Here are some of the things I have done to successfully breed these beautiful fish. 1- I began by purchasing a healthy pair of convicts. 2- I set placed them in there own aquarium and let them get used to each other and their surroundings. 3- I began feeding them live brine shrimp, this LIVE food source "jump-starts" their reproductive behavior. 4- About one month later I looked into the aquarium to see a small hole dug into the gravel with many babies resting on the bottom. 5- Three days later the babies began to swim around in the tank. 6- I kept my loving convict parents in perfect health and so the parents kept their babies in good health. 7- as the babies grew older, about a month or so old, I began to feed them fry bites. This helps the fry grow big an strong. So concluding, the fry are not quite grown up all the way but I see a bright future ahead of them. I hope these tips help you successfully breed your convicts. Thank You. From: c shares Date:12/03/2001 I have found that these fish are quite well behaved when sharing tanks with platties. From: John Date:12/17/2001 I have this little monster in my 55 gallon tank, and let me tell you he can hold his own. He's living with an eight inch arowana, nine inch clown knife, and a six inch sailfin. Nobody bothers him and he swims where he wants. He eats anything I throw in the tank, rosies, guppies, blood worms and the cichlid pellets of course. He's having a great time being the smallest and toughest fish in the tank! From: David Date:03/09/2002 My convicts are very aggressive. They share the tank with oscars and jacks. My 3 inch convict is the king of the tank even though I have a 10 inch oscar. But they're fun and easy to breed From: Kathy Date:04/10/2002 Be careful how warm your tank gets. They defiantly breed on a dime. I have had fish for many years and find that I have gotten the most pleasure from my convicts. They are very entertaining creates. From: Warren Date:04/10/2002 I put two 3/4 inch convicts in a 55 gal tank with four jack dempseys ranging from 1 to 2 inches. They fought for over a week and had a lot of tattered fins. I added three 2 inch danios and that solved the problem. The convicts and dempseys are so interested in the danios swimming in circles, that they stopped fighting each other. Now I was planning on raising the convicts to breeding size. But one morning I noticed gunk in the corner of the tank. I was going to gravel vac it out, but on closer inspection I saw convict fry! My convicts aren't even an inch long yet! CLICK HERE FOR MORE COMMENTS

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