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Hi all,
My name is Mikey, I am a member of the ACLC, last month Tony came and did a nice presentation about haps and peacocks, which aside from my high tech planted tanks, are the only fish I keep..
I breifly spoke with Tony about something that happened in one of my tanks and I figured I would share on here and see if anyone has heard of this happening anywhere else, also to post some pics as I finally just found my camera after being lost for weeks
so in a 40B I have upstairs in my sons room, I keep some juvies of astotalapia I believe is what they are named, the common name is red tailed hap, or thick skinned hap, they are a beautiful fish with a greenish gold body, nice black stripes, blue head, red fins, a bit more aggressive that some of the other haps I have kept
also in the tank at the time this happened were 2 sunshine peacocks, I do not know specicially which type of aulonocara they are as it was not listed when I bought them, they were from the ACA event in DC in 2011, as well as 3 juvies from That Pet Place of aulonocara stuartgranti ngara flametail, I was in the process of setting up a aulonocara tank, downstairs
the sunshine peacocks were very much full grown and they breed like crazy
so total in the tank were 2 full grown sunshine peacocks 1m 1f, 3 juvenile aulonocara stuartgranti, not yet big enough to breed IMO 1m 2f, but I could be wrong on that, they were around 2" when taken out maybe a bit bigger, and 3 of the red tailed haps 1m 2f, and they were breeding too but with all the fish only in a 40B I didnt see any fry make it untill I pulled them out to put the aulonocara in a separate 55 gallon tank
so when I pulled the fish out, I saw a little guy swiming around that couldnt have been more than a few weeks, all those fish were together for about 1 1/2 months, he had a weird body color and I thought it was just a red tailed hap fry, as I had breed the aulonocaras before and knew them to look different, he also had a bit of red on the fins, again making me think he was a red tailed hap
however the red color faded and the black markings I thought would turn into bars only turned into blotches, he has a very blue face, very orange body with a beautiful blue tint over the whole thing and the red completely disapeared from the fins
so what I have now I believe to be an OB morph, and the nicest one I have ever seen
the body has signs of both fish, both have a blue head, and the shape of the head is between the peacocks and the haps, the bottom fins look more like the peacocks and the top fin looks more like the shape of the haps, its definately not aggressive and I would almost call its demeanor skittish
so currently in the tank are some juvies of both species, the only original fish from when the fry was found in one female, who I never saw holding, however its not as pronounced when the haps are holding and they have some secret hiding space somewhere in the tank, I even took out all decorations looking from that female that remain in the tank to give to someone for a breeding setup, but it must have been hiding in one of the decorations, even tho it was out of water for at least 15 minutes as I took out all decoration, probably the large fake coral towards the rear of the tank as part of the bottom is hollow and could have easily retained some water as I lay in on end in the container I use to hold the decorations when cleaning, removing fish, etc, I also suspect dead fish in there from time to time as I get alot of cloudy water in that tank even with regular filter maintenance, I have a large fluval canister on it, and I do regular water changes, this also does not happen in any of my other tanks... since its in my sons room and he is a little over 2 years old, I keep the colorful fake decor in this tank only to try to interest him in the hobby
here are some pics
the 2 male aulonocara that were in the 40B at the time
the 55 they reside in now
I know its not good to mix dif aulonocara sp, but the females are very distinguishable as the female stuartgranti are much darker and the female sunshine peacock has a yellow tipped top fin and the stuartgranti have a black tipped top fin, I pull them out and breed then in different tanks if I wanna get some for a friend or sell some to the LFS so I am not putting out mutts into the public...
this is the 40B with the juvies in it now
here are pics of the OB morph
sorry for the poor pics, that boat is his territory and he loves its and does not come out much
the fish in this tank breed, however I have not had another naturally occuring OB morph, although I do believe he mates with some of the female haps as the one distinguishable redtailed hap male, is just coming up to breeding size in the last month of two but i have been seeing hap fry for a while now...
I think maybe if he breed with female aulonocara I may be able to bring out the OB morph trate again
what is your opinion?
have you ever heard of these fish creating an OB morph?, that fish does look like an OB morph correct?
Mikey : )
My name is Mikey, I am a member of the ACLC, last month Tony came and did a nice presentation about haps and peacocks, which aside from my high tech planted tanks, are the only fish I keep..
I breifly spoke with Tony about something that happened in one of my tanks and I figured I would share on here and see if anyone has heard of this happening anywhere else, also to post some pics as I finally just found my camera after being lost for weeks
so in a 40B I have upstairs in my sons room, I keep some juvies of astotalapia I believe is what they are named, the common name is red tailed hap, or thick skinned hap, they are a beautiful fish with a greenish gold body, nice black stripes, blue head, red fins, a bit more aggressive that some of the other haps I have kept
also in the tank at the time this happened were 2 sunshine peacocks, I do not know specicially which type of aulonocara they are as it was not listed when I bought them, they were from the ACA event in DC in 2011, as well as 3 juvies from That Pet Place of aulonocara stuartgranti ngara flametail, I was in the process of setting up a aulonocara tank, downstairs
the sunshine peacocks were very much full grown and they breed like crazy
so total in the tank were 2 full grown sunshine peacocks 1m 1f, 3 juvenile aulonocara stuartgranti, not yet big enough to breed IMO 1m 2f, but I could be wrong on that, they were around 2" when taken out maybe a bit bigger, and 3 of the red tailed haps 1m 2f, and they were breeding too but with all the fish only in a 40B I didnt see any fry make it untill I pulled them out to put the aulonocara in a separate 55 gallon tank
so when I pulled the fish out, I saw a little guy swiming around that couldnt have been more than a few weeks, all those fish were together for about 1 1/2 months, he had a weird body color and I thought it was just a red tailed hap fry, as I had breed the aulonocaras before and knew them to look different, he also had a bit of red on the fins, again making me think he was a red tailed hap
however the red color faded and the black markings I thought would turn into bars only turned into blotches, he has a very blue face, very orange body with a beautiful blue tint over the whole thing and the red completely disapeared from the fins
so what I have now I believe to be an OB morph, and the nicest one I have ever seen
the body has signs of both fish, both have a blue head, and the shape of the head is between the peacocks and the haps, the bottom fins look more like the peacocks and the top fin looks more like the shape of the haps, its definately not aggressive and I would almost call its demeanor skittish
so currently in the tank are some juvies of both species, the only original fish from when the fry was found in one female, who I never saw holding, however its not as pronounced when the haps are holding and they have some secret hiding space somewhere in the tank, I even took out all decorations looking from that female that remain in the tank to give to someone for a breeding setup, but it must have been hiding in one of the decorations, even tho it was out of water for at least 15 minutes as I took out all decoration, probably the large fake coral towards the rear of the tank as part of the bottom is hollow and could have easily retained some water as I lay in on end in the container I use to hold the decorations when cleaning, removing fish, etc, I also suspect dead fish in there from time to time as I get alot of cloudy water in that tank even with regular filter maintenance, I have a large fluval canister on it, and I do regular water changes, this also does not happen in any of my other tanks... since its in my sons room and he is a little over 2 years old, I keep the colorful fake decor in this tank only to try to interest him in the hobby
here are some pics
the 2 male aulonocara that were in the 40B at the time
the 55 they reside in now
I know its not good to mix dif aulonocara sp, but the females are very distinguishable as the female stuartgranti are much darker and the female sunshine peacock has a yellow tipped top fin and the stuartgranti have a black tipped top fin, I pull them out and breed then in different tanks if I wanna get some for a friend or sell some to the LFS so I am not putting out mutts into the public...
this is the 40B with the juvies in it now
here are pics of the OB morph
sorry for the poor pics, that boat is his territory and he loves its and does not come out much
the fish in this tank breed, however I have not had another naturally occuring OB morph, although I do believe he mates with some of the female haps as the one distinguishable redtailed hap male, is just coming up to breeding size in the last month of two but i have been seeing hap fry for a while now...
I think maybe if he breed with female aulonocara I may be able to bring out the OB morph trate again
what is your opinion?
have you ever heard of these fish creating an OB morph?, that fish does look like an OB morph correct?
Mikey : )
