convict

...i think thats usually when they turn wife beater.

I agree with Lampeye here, with many of the South and Central American Cichlids the time comes when males are ready to breed again and females are not. In the wild, as most fish are not monogamous, the male would have simply moved on - or in some cases it would be the male which stayed with the fry and the female would have been evicted from the family group and the remaining parent would be left to tend to the fry...for a while, anyway. What eventually happens is most of the fry get eaten by other predators with a few survivors 'escaping' to grow to maturity.
When kept in our tanks, though, situations become different - many female Cichlids get so wrapped up with the parental instinct that reproduction becomes the last priority as they are minding a (virtually) non-diminishing clutch of fry. Many (especially the more aggressive species) male Cichlids do not share the ongoing parental instinct and when they are ready to breed again woe betide the female which isn't! As I said, in the wild - no problem, but in a confined space of even the largest of tanks there just isn't enough space for the female to hide - without intervention, such as moving the male to other quarters or making a refuge for the poor female - who still wants to mind her fry.
I have a pair of Apisto Borelli in a segmented tank which bred and, for the safety of the fry - the male was eating them! - I moved the pair along with another female to the adjoining section in order for the pair to breed again. But as the dividers were clear glass both the females could see the fry still and were vainly trying to mind them regardless of the invisible barrier. With most Apistos it's the female which is by far the most dominant partner and these femalee were not only trying to mind the young but also were very positively keeping the male away from the glass too. Now, with the fry half grown and the male making all manner of advances to them neither female still will have none of it, I really must move either the fry or the adults away from being able to see one another! This doesn't always happen with Apistos either - a little while back I had a pair of Cacs which were guarding fry, the male started munching a few so got removed and the female carried on with the guarding duties but when she returned to breeding condition she ate all the remaining fry, I returned the male again and they started spawning immediately.

I included those couple of examples to show that - in our tanks some times the parental instinct is paramount, but at other times, when reproduction's the priority, parental instincts are soon forgotten.

And one last point - Fran is definitely right, you really don't want very many Convict fry - they are a devil to even give away!

John