Tank Mates For Honduran Red Points

[mjzuverink]

hey fish lovers, I have cently picked up two pairs of honduran red points. right now i just have them in my 55 gallon planted tank. they are not big yet, my guess would be about 2 months from sexaul maturity. they are quite shy right now so im definitely going to get some dithers but not sure what to get. any ideas? i have never had schooling fish and think that might be kinda cool but dont know much about them. I love cichlids but im hoping to have my HRPs breed later on so i dont wanna populate the tank to much, especially with aggressive fish. let me hear suggestions! thanks in advance for your input

 

[Wills]

Hi there! I keep HRPs as well, Ive had mine about 4 months and had 6 or 7 batches of eggs, but only the second batch have the fry grown. I think the second batch have grown up and have been eating all the other eggs since! One of the main advantages of HRPs over Convicts is the smaller broods where as cons might have 2-300 HRP only have 30-70 per time, which is a much more manageable size of offspring for you to manage. You would be surprised at how small they start breeding at. Mine female was just under 2 inch and he was about 2.5 hes around 3 and she is a bit over 2 now.

An other good point of HRPs is that tank mates are an option . At the moment I have 3 lipstick stripe headstanders in with mine and 2 plecs 135 and a 235. I have also had a school of ruby barbs with them but a friend wanted them to build up her school so I gave them away. Other people keep them with livebearers like sword tails and platies. When choosing tank mates I would pick things that stay in the mid to upper levels get to around 3 inch minimum fast and that can take a chasing and the occasional "butting". Other tank mates I had considered are marbled headstanders, three spot headstanders, golden panchax, oddesa barbs, ruby barbs, tigers barbs, giant danio, flame tetra - and similar shaped and sized tetra and pencil fish (though the last 2 were the riskier ones IMO) What are the dimensions of the tank? As you might be able to add an other cichlid in there quite safely depends on the foot print though.

Also I dont know how long your plants will last Before I added mine I had full planting and within 2ish weeks I had to sell them on and get an XXL java fern on wood with giant valis. They didnt eat them just dug them up when looking for food and breeding holes. The breeding holes will be deep and make sure your rocks etc are well balanced and supported

 

[mjzuverink]

hey thanks for the reply, my tank is a standard fifty five which is 12 inches deep 20 inches high and 48 inches long. i have the two pairs of the HRPS and i would love to add another cichlid but im just worried that the HRPS will be stressed and not spawn what do you think?

Yeah the majority of my plants are java fern ( cus i new the HRPs would be trouble makers) and they havea amazon sword where the base is covered mby sever 2-3 rocks so hopefully they dont get to that !

all those tank mates sound prettty sweet, im going to the LFS right now so ill let you know what i see and if i get anything!

sorry, i forgot to ask..... Do you think i should down it to just one pair of the HRPs once they have paired off? do you think the two pairs will eat eachothers eggs? i dono

 

[Wills]

Ah you have 2 pairs! I think if you have 2 pairs breeding I would leave it at that but if you just want one breeding pair I can understand why. Though I think you would be able to have more cichlids with just one pair in there.... I just cant think of anything to suggest...hmm maybe something at a similar size to your male but a bit dopey. I think with the HRPs breeding you want the HRP male to be the dominant fish in the tank.

 

[mjzuverink]

yup! i think im going to try and keep both pairs and breed. my males are just starting to get their awesome colors and my females are still pretty small. bu i cant wait till they are big, your look amazing in your pics. i ended up getting some dithers today from the local pet store so the HRPs arent so nervous and skiddish. I got a school of 6 tiger barbs and 2 giant danios . i could really tell a difference once i added them in the HRPs came out of hiding immediately. the giant danios help them feel safer because they dont ever stop swimming across the top of the tank. and the HRP seem to love to follow the school of tiger barbs around. but it looks good for now, we'll see if i end up adding any others later on

 

[Wills]

Cool sounds good so far would top up your giant danios to about 6 as well though They will like the numbers

 

[mjzuverink]

hey Wills thanks for all your help, heres a new pic of one of my male HRPs!

 

[Wills]

Awh cool guy, definitely a male as well the head shape is right. Nice blue chin on yours as well! Only my female has a bright chin where as my male keeps a blue all over but has really pinky fins.

 

[mjzuverink]

yeah as he moves around alot i can really see the red in his back fin, its wierd like he reflects different colors from all angles. but yeah he is the more colorful of my two mails right now, prob the dominant. my females are a bit smaller, the are just starting to get the blues on the fins. really looking forward to having them fully grown!

 

[Wills]

Yeah I know what you mean about the tails!! Sometimes its like blood red other times its like a rose colour. Just remember it will take breeding fish much longer to get to their true potential size though if they ever do. But yeah I'm hoping my male will reach at least 4 inch

 

[mjzuverink]

hey here are some more pics of th HRPs, sorry the quality is just my camera phone so they dont look great. and sorry the tiger barb ad giant danios are nearly impossible to snap pictures of, or atleast with this camera

here is my second male, the other posted above in the nicer quality picture

this female is growing very fast, she had no color at alll when i got her, now you prob can't see it but she is very flourescent and is greating that brilliant orange on her underside, the other picture has the two females, again sorry about the quality

will get some better pics up once i borrow my dad's camera again.

kinda bummed my plants havent really seemed to start to fill ot yet, i have got the light on a 12 hour shift? any ideas of other plans i could get to fill the tank, or do you guys think it looks alright?

 

[Wills]

Yeah they look cool . Nice male there as well I would say more definate male than the other one. Interesting that your females get so close to start with my pair could not stand any thing else in the tank but things have calmed down now.

As for the planting java fern will grow fast once it takes hold. But if your wanting instant filling why not add more in? Get hold of a few java fern mother plants?

Wills

 

[mjzuverink]

true, i guess if im impatient i could just get more java fern. i really think i need to get some drift wood because i dont know how well they aer taking root to the rock crevaces. but yeah i agree usually the females are by themselves or being chased by the males.

By the way Wills, what kind of lighting do you have? i have just been trying to of optimal lighting for the plants and to really breing out the colors of the HRPs
and also wondering what size your tank is i was looking through your topics and couldnt find a pic of your whole tank shot. would really like to see it!!!

Also, i think i may try java moss, just for more shelter for my tiger barbs and hopeflly future HRP fry . just wondering if you had any experience using java moss?

 

[Wills]

Ive not got any full tank shots yet but might post some soon. Mine is a 3ft 33gal so only one pair for me Got some more eggs again the other night. Never tried moss with these guys but I dont see a problem the only way they wreck plants is via digging not eating them so it should work. Have you tried planting giant valis? This seems pretty indestructible even to my lot and it grows really fast I have to chop a good 8 inch - a foot of mine every fortnight but thats just due to personal preference.

Wills

 

[mjzuverink]

Wow i should look into that giant valis, sounds familiar but i cant picture it. seems to grow really fast. yeah its wierd cus i though the Java ferns would grow really fast in mine and its been maybe a little less then a month and havent noticed much growth, same with my amazon sword. do you have any tips on how to anchor the baby java ferns from the mother plant i have several on the mother plant that have pretty long roots and are ready to seperate but everytime i try and place them i find them in the bottom corner of the tank the next day. whith my bigger plants i tied the base of them to string with a bolt on the end so the string is between rocks with the bolt behind the rock walls holding the java fern to the front of the rock crevases. but im not sure this would work well with the babys.

again thanks for all your help , for a fry tank do you think a twenty long would be good? i know a guy who breeds and is selling alot of his tanks. he has given me options i could get a 10g, 20 glong, 20 ghigh, a 40g gallon breeder tank ( i like these), or another 50g. i dont think i need the fifty gallon, i might just get the 40 because i like the deep dimensions. but would a 20 gallon long be alright for the fry? i believe it is 12in high, 12inches deep, and 3 ft long