More tank pics, updated

[FINWIN]

For all I know this is just normal female convict coloration, but to me Bullet looks similar to Leia in breeding dress. Minus the blue on the gill plate of course. Leading up to her laying, some spangles went silver. Even two blue ones right behind her gill plate. Love it!
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Interesting how these fish change. Bullet is the only female out of 100+ to have silver spangles...all the others have orange or red. I have one older female Bella who has no spangles and is elongated arrow shaped like her father Mongo. Who knows what might pop out next?

 

[phreeflow]

Here's Stripey, another one of the jumbo sons from Pip/Mongo. He doesn't have the nuchal hump or 'double decker' look of brothers Hulk and Tank, but he's just as massive. Almost looks like a supersized version of his mother Pip. He's the only huge male to produce fry.

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Can’t wait to see how Big his fry get. My supersize males are all infertile. Come to think of it, they rarely even try to breed and the females are never too interested in them either. Odd…

 

[FINWIN]

Can’t wait to see how Big his fry get. My supersize males are all infertile. Come to think of it, they rarely even try to breed and the females are never too interested in them either. Odd…

All of those fry (56) were donated well over a year ago....they were all miniature Pips. Stripey is the only big male Pip showed interest in but he was smaller at the time. It may not be a coincidence his different body type (thick triangle) may have appealed to her more. NONE of the ones with nuchal humps interest her. With her and Mongo it was like 3 days of chasing. Then she disappeared, then there were babies.

I had no idea so many of the first gen males would end up so large. The three smallest are Bumper (4"), Buddy (~5"), Shade (4+") and Mote (4"). Bumper and Buddy are built thick like the biggest ones and have a hump. Shade and Mote have flatter bodies with no hump. The biggest of the big (in no order) are Tank, Hulk, Bubba and Stripey who basically look like young Chancos...They range from 5 1/2" to over 6" long and 3 to 4 inches tall.

Scooter and Dusty are only slightly smaller than the biggest ones. Dusty is built like a male midas.

I recently saw a few white eggs scattered on a log Bruce and Bella stay in which reinforces the sterility factor of these big males. Stripey may have been the outlier. Bella (striped) is a first generation daughter out of Pip/Mongo. Large and elongated with no spangles unlike most of the females in her clan. She tried getting the tank "Queenship" from Pip but that bombed so she lives peacefully in her own area of the 225. No friction between the 2 females.

 

[FINWIN]

Can’t wait to see how Big his fry get. My supersize males are all infertile. Come to think of it, they rarely even try to breed and the females are never too interested in them either. Odd…

I suspect their form may seem gross/unappealing to females for some reason. All of the female hrps I have that bred refused males with humps even when they showed interest. So while the look appeals to humans it doesn't appear to apply to potential mates. Interesting.

Pip allows her sons to be close as companions but not for breeding. If they try a fight breaks out.

 

[FINWIN]

Another thing I forgot to mention. Given a choice all of the females choose the pink males first. Pip and Flash have bred with a striped male as well but that occurred only when no pink male was in the tank.

Pip
(her daughters)
Xena
Blaze
Speck
Flash
(granddaughters)
Harlequin
Mica

clearly a pattern.

 

[celebrist]

Interesting

 

[phreeflow]

Another thing I forgot to mention. Given a choice all of the females choose the pink males first. Pip and Flash have bred with a striped male as well but that occurred only when no pink male was in the tank.

Pip
(her daughters)
Xena
Blaze
Speck
Flash
(granddaughters)
Harlequin
Mica

clearly a pattern.

That’s fascinating about the females picking the pink ones first. Never owned any but I had platinums and only one of my platinum males were ever fertile. My females would also rather pick a smaller male than a hulking large male with a nuchal hump. The big males are slouches too…all show and no go

 

[FINWIN]

Add Bullet to the list of females picking a pink male first...her father, Mongo. Today I found wigglers. I plunked her into the all female tank with her mother, sisters and cousins. the babies were siphoned out. Poor Mongo, hated to take his newest family but...it's gotta be done. The zero popularion plan moves forward.

Adding Bullet has brought the other females out of hiding. I also added more cover/vines which helped. The other 'straggler' babies in the 125 will be added to a holding tub with Mica's fry, who will be moved soon. Once they're sexed I'll have a better idea who goes where. This includes Harlequin's three fry.

Blackbeard will remain in the growout with his fry until they're bigger. Then it's on to the 125.

Been having an issue with a 'stinky' tank myself, the large breeder...just did another partial w/c today. I'm thinking not having enough fish with bioload isn't helping support the bacteria so I'm getting mini crashes. Talk about funk.

Status quo in all other tanks. Just an observation...Mica is the calmest mother of the hrp clan with fry. She's protective but not super aggressive or territorial. She did face off against the parrot Tango early on...it was pretty funny because he's like 15x her size.

I remember when Pip started leaving her fry to fend for themselves. She would still circle the tank and watch them from a distance. Pretty cool.

 

[FINWIN]

Updates.

Hrp Mica's fry (half grown, really) have been moved into a temporary holding tub and out of Bp Tango's tank. The parrot watched me work patiently as I scooped out the mob. Mama Mica did me a favor by leaping into the net so she went into a bucket. Did a total scrub down due to excessive algae buildup. Tango appreciated the room and clean, doing loops and swimming upside down. Mica looked around before darting into her log.

Seems as though the wigglers out of Mongo/Bullet have disappeared, most likely eaten by the larger 'straggler' fry. I've discovered older fry are the best predators.

In the all female tank Harlequin is squaring off with her "aunts" Xena and Blaze. I've had to add so much cover to get them all out of hiding I can't see what they're fighting about!

 

[FINWIN]

I absolutely love this complex family structure of hrps...funny thing happened in the 125 yesterday. Brutus, (a son from Slade/Speck) was getting hassled and bumped around by his 'uncle' Mongo. I've documented Mongo's foul temper and wild aggression which is almost comical because its so over the top. The minute any fish crosses the invisible line he tries chasing EVERYBODY at once. This can't work because (a) his sons are too big for that bs and (b) Brutus is equally bad tempered. But since he isn't a boss he tempers it a bit.

So anyway Mongo kept shoving Brutus who clearly was resisting (turning sideways, flipping his tail) and starting to get pissed. Since Brutus wouldn't run, Mongo gave him a clean shot in the side. He didn't get another one in. Flying across the tank was papa Slade who walloped Mongo hard enough to bounce him off a log. Brutus watched and gave a shimmy shake! Mongo retreated to his branch cave for a bit. Don't mess with Slade's boy!

Brutus' brother Squiggy has become a decent cheap shot artist when squabbling with his cousins but he picks his spots. Still a bit slimmer than bro but catching up. (think linebacker vs defensive end)

Things should get interesting in the next couple of months because Brutus is now about 90% of Slade and Mongo's size. He's really thick. Whether he challenges for a top spot remains to be seen as neither boss appears ready to relinquish their title. Ironically Brutus gravitates more toward Mongo who normally allows him on his turf (more on that later).

Mongo and Slade are dead evenly matched physically. Who comes out on top from their skirmishes depends on aggression and mood.

Appears to be a sister of Bullet floating around eyeing things. And I'm keeping an eye on HER. Hello, Reeva. She a fat lil' thing.