Honduran Red Points Have Spawned!

[mjzuverink]

Hey guys, i have 2 pair of HRPS in my 55 gallon tank. recently i noticed one of my females gettin awesome colors and acting kinda funny. my two mals have been battling , picking at eachother, flairing their gills. so i had a feeling my first spawn was comng. sure enough, after work tonight i found a nice size group of eggs in one of my clay pots that the female is viscously guarding. so, I'm just wonderin what steps i should take and what to look for. when should expect them to hatch and be free swimming? should i be worried about the HRPs eating all my fry/eggs. should i and when should move the eggs into a isolated tank? ( i dont have one setup yet because i wasnt really expecting this). and etc. i hopin you guys can let me know what i have to do so my fry can survive

 

[helterskelter]

From what i hear their much the same as convicts. If you have no space they will easily rear the fry with the parents guarding them.

Hopefully they will of spawned at one end of the tank and all the fish will now be crowded to the other end. If their in the middle it's a harder job for both the parents and the other fish but i think they will still win.

The only problem is the first 2-3 batched tend to never do to well, but it's a fast lurning curve and soon they should get 20-30 fish to an inch or so.

If you have pleco's they will surly get past the defending parents and hoover up the eggs.

 

[Wills]

Wooo congrats!! My HRPs first batch failed and they ate the eggs so they tried again and I got a big batch of fry I got 70 which is a large brood for HRPs. My fry are about 4 months old and the tank had plecs and barbs in at the time. At around 3 months the parents let the fry do their own thing and its still going well, until this point I just left the parents to it and they did awesome with the fry and eggs.

I have just left everything to them and around 45-50 fry are still with us the only fatalities we had are when my headstanders get the odd one but its not that bad. I think that after 6 months mine will reach a size suitable for sale and I have a few LFS that are intersted in buying them from me - hoping to get an external filter out of it

Well done glad these worked out for you.
Wills

 

[mjzuverink]

well she did spawn in the middle of the tank. but good thing is its in the back of a small clay pot so there is only one way to get to them which the female is gurading very well. im no concerend with my tiger barbs or giant danios, more so just the other pair of HRPs. Wills, I know that you kept your fry in the same tank and let them develope there, but do you think i should move them to another tank because i have that other pair of HRPs. if so , when can i do this, once they are free swimming? or when are they no longer dependent on the parents?

 

[Wills]

I think really its the same for most cichlids the eggs or fry can be removed from the parents very early as long as you can care for them, but to be honest all that will happen is that they will lay more eggs over and over now they have started mine have them every week nearly now. And though the later batches have been open to predation from other fish and the existing fry I have still had the odd one survive and as a result of this my pair have become more and more "creative" with where they lay them so in the most closed place possible as so no one else can get in literally a hole under some rocks that the male digs out till he can only just fit in and where she can just rest literally scraping in and out. I think just wait and see with this batch you will be suprised how well they can look after their fry. If you think about it in the wild there are tons of not only fish but other river dwellers that are risks to fry and eggs, its in their nature to protect the eggs and fry - but equally if you want to raise them all you can separate them now really just set up an air stone to fan the eggs and start feeding the fry the fry food for egg laying fish that is available just about anywhere good luck!!

Wills

 

[mjzuverink]

oka thanks wills. I have got a 20 gallon long on the way with sponge filter. so when i get that in the next few days i will get it cycling with some of the water from the main tank. whether i decide to isolate this first batch of fry in the 20 gallon, i dono but im sure i will experiment with which way works better for raising the fry, but i wil definitely wait for them to be free swimming then prob just syphon them into the fry tank. but like you said im hoping my pair gets into a ruitine now of spawning as often as yours do Wills.

 

[mjzuverink]

hey guys, sorry i have not done a good job keeping up with this topic as i have been very busy with school. because i took so long to set up a fry tank, i did lose a good chunk of my brood. I got about 15 survivors, that are about a centimeter long now showing good stripes but no color yet. I have just gotten the fry tank up and running. its a 20 gallon long. i seperated about a fourth of it off so i can have two stages of broods in the future, the smaller part being for eggs or newly hatched fry, and the majority of the tank to raise the fry to about an inch long or so. I will post a picture but basically, it was a very cheap project. i got a sponge filter and the tank for $13, a heater and HOB filter for $2, the piece of acrylic was also $2. i have the HOB filter running in the large part, but have the intake on a tube attached to the top of the sponge filter, which is in the smaller section. so the filter sucks water through the sponge from the small section, as the water fill in the large section, it overflows into the small section. I havent seen this idea before but it seems to be working great. I took a sponge with mature media from my larger tank and put it in th HOB filter so it wont need to cycle, just waiting for the water to heat up! here is a pick

 

[SBL]

Well, mine ate the eggs and I need a 100 watt heater for my 29., I'm savin up $40 for one or waiting for a sale.

 

[mjzuverink]

yeah i waited a long time looking for a heater and filter for my 20 gallon as i really didnt have money in the budget. I eded finding a nice filter for a dollar at GOODWILL! , that surprised me. and i know the owner of my lfs real well so he was able to give me the heater for a buck! overall mine ended up being very cheap to set up.

sorry to hear about your eggs, not to worry im sure yours will spawn again in no time. good to see someone else breeding HRPs too

 

[SBL]

So, we have a breeder in Mobile, Alabama; a breeder in East Yorkshire, UK; and a Michigan breeder. Hmm, glad you not in the south so I have no competition that I know of.

 

[SBL]

So, we have a breeder in Mobile, Alabama; a breeder in East Yorkshire, UK; and a Michigan breeder. Hmm, glad you not in the south so I have no competition that I know of.

 

[mjzuverink]

yes that is good, though I'm not as concerned as to be making money or selling mine, just enjoy the experience of breeding fish

 

[SBL]

Not trying to hijack your thred but, YES!!!!
They bred last night, I even got to see them this time. I'm putting in wormerwater to have the eggs grow quicker. I'm so happy.

 

[mjzuverink]

congrats! always exciting to get eggs im positive mine are going to spawn in the next few days so im givin them a nice dinner tonight. what is wormerwater? never heard of this before

 

[mjzuverink]

hey, thought i might give you guys an update on my 55 gallon that i breed the HRPs in
here is a recent picture (phone camera) i change alot of the aquascape around and have added more plants. also have only a pair of HRPs in for now instead of 2 pair. the less dominant pair is in my 20 gallon fry tank. so stocking is:

2 honduran redpoint
7 tiger barbs
2 giant danios
few cmmon snails


3 java fern
1 amazon sword plant
2 temple plants

let me know what you think