Gonna be honest, have totally lost track of who is related to who here lol. With that being said, does Brutus have any relation to the other monster hrps? He’s an absolute stunner and at least to me looks like he’s shaped differently. Looks like he has less of that “mini Midas” shape but rather more traditional convict/hrp shape, just massive LMAO.
He's a cousin to the big striped ones. A son of Slade/Speck, grandson of Mongo/Pip. Brothers are Ace, Blackbeard, Squiggy and Neet, sisters are Harlequin and Mica (all pinks). Brutus def has Slade's shape, just taller. And brother, can he eat. Real friendly, too...always one of the first to come up and greet and loves to explore. All of my hrps are related, tracing back to the trio of Mongo/Slade/and Pip. Approx 800 descendants in total.
I noticed the males of a certain shape tend to be fertile. There are no midas shaped pinks. The striped males midas shaped are all sterile. The two exceptions are Dusty (striped midas shape) and Stripey (striped, huge wedge shape like Brutus).
The rollercoaster continues. Buddy now has early stages of Columnaris. I kind of noticed his tail was a little ragged in traffic but when doing the the tank today I noticed the same three vertical dots on the tail and early fin rot. His nuchal hump looked grayish and off. And his chin is starting to turn white at the bottom. I didn't waste any time. Started him on a salt bath, followed up with a peroxide/methylene blue swab. He didn't take too well to it, laying on his side. Out of desperation I tried a product called "fish protect". It isn't a medicine but a carrying agent that lets medications absorb better on the skin. It has vitamin c also. Buddy kind of perked up but leaned against the bucket. Have no idea if he'll last the night. I can only hope, giving him peace and quiet.
Did a major clean of the 125 this time. I'll probably get rid of syno Cash. He's getting nasty and I'm done with it.
Needless to say the big fish were easiest to catch. I ended up using my led beamer flashlight to see the young fry that Mongo and Nix had. There were about 12 skating across the sand, not much bigger than wigglers. Would never have seen them under regular light.
Mongo has once again popped his cork.
I would like to eventually move selected fish to the 125 eventually but in light of what's going on I don't know.