Hi All,

I have three convicts in a 200l tank, i believe I have two females and one male but they dont seem to follow the usual coloraton pattern.
The two definate females have solid orang on their bellies and are much smaller, the male also has some orange on his belly but is also starting to form a head bump and fin extentions.

He has now dug a pit in a pot and is contantly chasing and shimmering to one of the females who has turned very bright white with vivid black stripes and the orange belly.

Do you think i have a sucessful pair?

if you have a male and a female, you have a pair. convicts are notorious for that. with my experience with convicts, i saw no orange coloration on the males.

ive heard of 2 females pairing up and laying eggs, of coarse the unfertilized eggs dont hatch.

by the sounds of the chasing and shimmering the female, and then digging, it sounds dead on. convicts are very rarely aggressive, accept when breading. and then your females response to brighten up seems to seal the deal. i once had a tank with 2 breeding pairs of convicts. i didnt see any shimmering or anything like i saw with my jack dempseys. one day it was like, bam a pair, with a pit dug out, and eggs in it.

i believe they will lay around 300-500 eggs, it seems like you will be seeing them shortly. what other fish do you have in the tank? how long have you had the convicts together?