Honduran Red Points

It all started with a 29 gal I bought at Petco on their $ sale. Bought a stand, painted the bottom and back of the tank black, added an AC 70 with 3 sponges (2 were well seeded) and a heater that I already had. Threw on a light, a couple of clay pots and some silk plants for quick decorations.

Now onto the Hondurans:

I had a male HRP in with some yellow labs for the last year. They were all given to me as small babies and I was never that crazy about him. Anyway he grew and became quite striking IMO. Heres some pics of him:


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Placed him in the new 29 gal and did a some water testing to make sure my well seeded sponges were doing their job. Gave him some extra attention and feedings....in hopes of getting him prepared for a possible new girlfriend.

Then I recently bought what I thought was a female....just going on some belly colorations. She's been in QT for 3 weeks doing really good. Heres some pics of her:


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I added her to his tank and it was love at first sight for him! He started immediately doing dances and shimmeys for her but she didn't seem too interested at all. He followed her around like a little lost puppy. I was just happy that she was in fact a "she" and they seemed to tolerate each other.

Well I took these pics of the male and female yesterday and this morning I found this...


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So sometime last night they spawned! Doesn't seem to be alot of eggs but thats ok. Mama seems to be the one tending the eggs and papa's just hanging out near by. I did stick my hand in the tank to turn the pot just enough so that I could photograph the eggs and neither one seemed the least bit interested in my hand. When I was breeding GBR they attacked me everytime I did anything in the tank.


Soooo now what! Breeding HRP is new for me so any information you guys/gals have would be much appreciated.

Some Q's I have:

1. Are they normally good parents?
2. Should I expect them to eat the eggs the first few spawns?
3. How long before the eggs hatch....free swimming?
4. What do I feed the fry?

Awesome pic
Good luck raising the fry

Last time I had them (15 years ago ) the parents were great... kept all the babies in a big barnacle in my tank to protect them from the other fish and beat the fin out of my 6inch black belt, so I had to re-home him.

These were some of my best. The flash brings out more blue than there really was though:

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If there anything like convicts... which I heard they were, you will have no problem!! They are the best parents of any fish I have ever had.... and the fry eat bbs directly after free swimming, which is nice... not like the GBR that have trouble munchin them down the first few days.

enjoying the pictures! love it how you captured the female relating to flowers.

Paintguy wrote:Last time I had them (15 years ago ) the parents were great... kept all the babies in a big barnacle in my tank to protect them from the other fish and beat the fin out of my 6inch black belt, so I had to re-home him.

These were some of my best. The flash brings out more blue than there really was though:

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i noticed you used a flash unit facing down on your POTM. how did you hold it in place?

Well the eggs are still there !

The only thing yet to do is to cover the intake tube on the AC70. It's on the opposite end of the tank from the flower pot with the eggs. I'll wait and see if they hatch etc before covering it.

Regardless I'll keep you posted on the progress!

[/quote]
i noticed you used a flash unit facing down on your POTM. how did you hold it in place?[/quote]

I shot that one at night with all the room lights off.. all the tank lights on and pulled forward on top, then I made a paper diffuser over the stock flash so it has less of a hot spot on the fish. About 25 shots to get that one in a crisp focus.


If I could mix a Honduran Red Point with my Electric Blue Jack Daniel... now that would be a healthy tuff fish.

I have wrigglers !

I can't even tell its a fish.....just looks like a wiggling egg at this point....LOL

So....so far so good!

The eggs look more like fry today. They at least have a little tail now that I can see. I tried to get pictures but it didn't come out that great. Its hard to get a focus on a pile of wiggles.


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Heres a pic of dad standing guard. They seem to be sharing duty now. Notice that theres still a few white eggs on the right side. They never hatched....about 7 or 8 of them.


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Then I realized they were moving them from the flower pot to somewhere else. I decided it was time to put the sponge over the intake on the filter because they were moving them closer that way.

Anyway I stuck my hand in there and papa BIT ME! He latched on to the top of my hand. It actually stung a bit (really it just scared me more than anything). So I guess Mr Mellow is gone and Mr Macho has arrived!

Heres a pic of him saying "just stick that hand in here again lady".


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Heres where they moved them to. Stupid place if you ask me ...BUT THEY DIDN'T ...so oh well. They've placed them on the backside of the bridge on the steps. They are constantly putting them back when they fall off. I guess they'll be free swimming soon so it won't matter anyway. Oh and the honeymoon must be over too. I'm starting to see a little bickering. Papa was trying to help move them and mama didn't want him to so she kept nudge him away. He would nudge back as if to say "don't push me". She flared her gills a bit but that was about it.



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So my next Q's are

How long can I leave the fry in there with them?

How long normally between spawns?

If you pull the fry/adults they will spawn again within 1 month.... With all my fish that spawned I tend to pull the fry about 1 week after free swimming... It takes away there cool natural behavior though. but, I never have to worry about mom or dad snackin on a babys...

Love the pictures, keep us updated on everything.... I really enjoy watching fish grow and the ups and downs the owner (this case being you) have to go thru. its a great learning exp. for newbies too. Thanks again!

That is awesome. I have 4 pairs of HRP. Only 2 have spawned. but none of them lasted. I guess mine are a bit confused.
But from what I know, the parents will continue to take care of them for as long as you want them to. The female usually will not lay any more eggs until the babies have been removed. Otherwise the babies feast on the eggs. Because it was their first spawn, I would IMO remove the little ones as soon as they start free swimming. Maybe even a bit sooner. They always seem to wanna eat that first spawn. At least all of my fish have that mentality.

What alot of work taking care of so many children.....LOL

AWESOME VIDEO!! and look how good of parents they are collecting them and keepin them grouped together! awesome!

Kianna that video is sweet!

Funny how they spit at the top of the stairs to they can slowly tumble down. Nice job.

Babies are doing good. Parents are still moving them around alot. I'm feeding BBS 3x a day but the parents are helping to feed also. I've noticed they've become messy eaters all of a sudden....spitting crushed up food out through their gills as if to feed the babies.

Anyway heres a couple more pics.



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Pretty cool. What are you gonna do with all the fry?

Wolf-Keeper1 wrote:Pretty cool. What are you gonna do with all the fry?

Not sure yet. I didn't expect them to spawn so quickly and when they did I thought they'd probably eat them the first time or two. I'm not planning on moving them anytime soon......kind of playing it by ear to see if the parents spawn again right away or if they'll continue to raise them.

Anyway to answer your question....I'll probably keep some and sell some

K. I think I have one that survived the payara. So if you end up selling some down the road I might be intreasted. Also you said you said you went by belly color to find a female. Did that work
in the end? Do you know other ways to sex them?

Wolf-Keeper1 wrote:K. I think I have one that survived the payara. So if you end up selling some down the road I might be intreasted. Also you said you said you went by belly color to find a female. Did that work
in the end? Do you know other ways to sex them?

I've bred GBR before and for me belly color was always a sure sign of a mature female. I hadn't bred HRP before so it was just my guess and yes it worked. The noticeable thing was the dorsel fin was way longer and came to more of a point. Where the females is shorter and more rounded. If you look at the pics I posted today you'll see a good example... the first pic is the female and the last pic is the male.

The only other way is venting and I'm no good at that....LOL Hope this helps some!

That was helpful. Thanks.

OK the honeymoon is over I think! Looks like the male has beat up the female. Her tail is frayed and her right eye is messed up.

Heres a quick video...check out her eye!








So what should I do? Remove her and leave him with the babies (not sure I trust him with the babies) or remove him and leave her with the babies? Any suggestions ???

it look like she got in his way and he bit her on the eye.... and depends on what you want to do with the fry if you wanted to keep them/sell them remove them both...if nature needs to happen is a 50/50 chance either way on which one to remove... i think the dads are better with young in the south/central Americans but not an on expert on them...safest bet though is remove them both

icer711 wrote:it look like she got in his way and he bit her on the eye.... and depends on what you want to do with the fry if you wanted to keep them/sell them remove them both...if nature needs to happen is a 50/50 chance either way on which one to remove... i think the dads are better with young in the south/central Americans but not an on expert on them...safest bet though is remove them both

Well the male spent the night in a breeder net. I figured I would decide this morning what to do. I'd like to keep the fry but really she's more important to me. I set the tank up for just them and chances are I won't be able to put them together again until after the fry are gone or moved.

Anyway I turned the lights on this morning and I thought she looked better at first glance. Her color was good and her eye looked slightly better. Then I saw her tail.....WOW! It looks like pieces are falling off and the male was in a net (he looks fine by the way). So am I dealing with something else? Fin rot...cloudy eye (although the eye looked like an injury)?

Heres some pics of her from this morning...

This is her good eye:

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This is her injuried eye:

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...but look at her tail. Last night it was thin and frayed so is it just pieces falling off ....OR....am I dealing with something else??

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Any thoughts????

i would say the eye is from him 98% sure it looks better and should be just fine in a day or two... and guess on the tail is he got some good bites in that killed off the fin .... never dealt with fin rot though so i not 100%what it looks like

icer711 wrote:i would say the eye is from him 98% sure it looks better and should be just fine in a day or two... and guess on the tail is he got some good bites in that killed off the fin .... never dealt with fin rot though so i not 100%what it looks like

I think you're right about the tail. The dead parts fell off and it looks like its beginning to heal. The eye looks better too but I can see its gonna take a little bit to get her completely healed. I'm doing 50% water changes daily--good for her and good for the fry.


Fry are doing good--growing really fast (17 days old now).

The fry are really large enough to not have either parents in there.... So if you pull both parents then they can get back to there spawning to get you more babies anyway.... wont be as much fighting Or, pull the fry and leave the parents... your call.

sandnuka wrote:The fry are really large enough to not have either parents in there.... So if you pull both parents then they can get back to there spawning to get you more babies anyway.... wont be as much fighting Or, pull the fry and leave the parents... your call.

Ok question ?-- The male is currently in a tank by himself and the female is still in with the fry (the fry are almost 4 weeks now). If I put the female in the males tank in order to try for another spawn....can I later move her back with the older fry (let say in 2-3 weeks) and let the male raise the new fry. I was thinking I'll have to remove her again before he starts beating up on her but I was wondering if she'll no longer see the older fry as her babies and maybe eat them. Oh and a 3rd tank isn't an option at this point. Any suggestions?

Kianna wrote:

sandnuka wrote:The fry are really large enough to not have either parents in there.... So if you pull both parents then they can get back to there spawning to get you more babies anyway.... wont be as much fighting Or, pull the fry and leave the parents... your call.

Ok question ?-- The male is currently in a tank by himself and the female is still in with the fry (the fry are almost 4 weeks now). If I put the female in the males tank in order to try for another spawn....can I later move her back with the older fry (let say in 2-3 weeks) and let the male raise the new fry. I was thinking I'll have to remove her again before he starts beating up on her but I was wondering if she'll no longer see the older fry as her babies and maybe eat them. Oh and a 3rd tank isn't an option at this point. Any suggestions?

I'd suggest putting the pair together again, and don't place the female back with the older fry. She might not see the bigger fry as hers any more... I think you're going to just have a fry tank and a tank for the pair.

Hopefully you can get a cycle going where you just sell the fry as soon as another batch is ready to be put in the fry tank. That way you'll have no aggression problems and plenty of room for them to grow out.

I was afraid you were gonna say that! I can do a tank for the pair and a fry grow out tank.....the problem is in thinking ahead....if or should I say when he beats her up again I won't then have a suitable place for one of them to go in order to separate them.

Get a tank divider

Spyral wrote:Get a tank divider

Hmmmm......now why didn't I think of that! Thanks guys !!

Ok....got the tank divder ready to go and the female is all healed up. It took about 2 1/2 weeks for her eye and tail to heal completely but shes looking as good as new.
I removed her from the fry tank and added her to the males tank 3 days ago and ....whola...... have eggs this morning. Looks like almost twice as many eggs this time too! So its been about 4 weeks since the 1st batched hatched and almost 5 weeks since the last spawn. I wonder if they would have spawned earlier if I had left them together. Anyway we'll see how this 2 tank plan works......one tank for the fry and one tank for the pair (with a divider standing by).

Heres a short little video I took today of the 1st batch of fry---at 4 weeks old now.

I dont think they wouldve spawned with the fry there.... all the fish that have spawned multiple times for me wait until I pull them from the fry tank or i pull the fry before they go at it again....

Couple of pics of the fry from the first batch. They're so cute....can't wait till they start to color up!


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well i love it , lol .. oh and its always best to put the male into the females tank in my personal opinion .. id like to get a nice group of thoughs from u . i have lots of trading stock ..lol watchawant

endangered cichlids wrote: well i love it , lol .. oh and its always best to put the male into the females tank in my personal opinion .. id like to get a nice group of thoughs from u . i have lots of trading stock ..lol watchawant

Yah you're right it would have been better! The female was in with the fry though and I didn't really want to move the fry. The pair seems to be doing great together so far. The 2nd batch of fry are about 1.5 weeks now (I start counting from hatching) and the 1st batch should be ready for new homes after xmas I'm thinking. Just wish they'd start to get some color.......just little would be nice

The first batch of fry are now 11 weeks old and just starting to get blue on their fins. I have redone their tank a bit and I'm now using it as a plant holding/starter tank also. Anyway heres a couple of videos of them taken today.



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The second batch of fry are now 4 1/2 weeks old and still with mom & dad. No more fighting between mom & dad (at least so far) so I plan to just leave them there for the time being.

Ok went to feed the 2nd batch of fry tonight and noticed that the babies were already busy chowing down on something. At first I thought it was algae but when I looked closer I saw that mom & dad had layed another batch of eggs. They didn't appear to be tending them and the babies were munching on them. I ended up removing the eggs....didn't want the babies munching on them and I REALLY didn't want the parents to attack their babies defending the new eggs. Plus I don't have a 3rd tank to dedicate to HRP.

So the spawns are about 4-5 weeks apart with or without fry already present. I think its almost time to find homes for the 1st batch of fry. Then I can move the parents to that tank before they spawn again.....LOL

Getting more and more blue on them with just a tinge of red starting to appear in some of the finnage. The black stripping is starting to fade also. I think they're almost ready for new homes now.





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