Male HRP as "wet pet"??

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BellycrawlerJaws

BellycrawlerJaws

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Sep 25, 2010
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Long Island, New York
How would a male honduran red point be as a "wet pet" in a 20 long?

There's driftwood in the tank, as well as a clay pot and a few cichlid stones and fake plants.

And how could I perhaps get his nuchal hump to grow?
 
I don't think they grow nuchal humps. Convicts do though.

Why don't you get a pair of convicts and have a breeding tank?... the male would eventually grow a hump. I think most Cichlids need either a potential mate or some sub-dominant males to grow a hump... not sure if they will grow a hump in a 20 gal by themselves (excluding flowerhorns.) The hump represents that they're "dominant".
 
The nuchal hump depends a lot on temperament, tankmates, and genetics, especially in species like convicts and their close relative the HRP. My convict has only developed a nuchal hump when he had a female con in the tank with him. As a solo pet? Never. This is different from other species such as Midas who can commonly develop a nuchal hump as a single pet. There's no way to make it develop, especially if the fish is housed alone.

As for making him a wet pet, you could work at it by offering tempting foods such as frozen bloodworms or krill by hand. My con is indeed a wet pet who flares at me and follows me around the room as he watches me. This type of temperament may not develop until a male grows to adult size, because a single juvenile may be rather timid.
 
Yeah, I have a tank with a pair of cons in it currently, the male has a very slight "bump", but it's never much.

The HRP are pure "Rio Danli" whose parents or grandparents were caught by Rusty Wessel, and the male is a beauty (here's a pic)

SDC11842.jpg


and here's the male con with his hump at the biggest it's been (gone down since)

3AMAZING.jpg


Anyways, basically this male HRP has become intolerant of his other HRP siblings (got a batch of 5 from a reputable dealer in oregon, said it was 3f 2m, but it looks like 4m 1f (female was separated after being beaten up, and has since passed) and I'm thinking of giving the other subdominant males to a fellow MFK so they get a good home...

Would this male's colors also get brighter if he's alone? (there are 5 cory cats in the tank) He isn't very timid now, but I could only imagine his personality as he grows :)
 
I don't think he will brighten up by being alone - in fact I think it would be the opposite... I've never owned an HRP but other species like Firemouths don't really brighten up unless they're breeding or competing with others. But this is just my experience which is not a lot.

And a fish might become shy after removing all of its tank mates at once, it might just start hiding for no reason. I had a male JD that kept hiding in a cave for months after losing its breeding mate.
 
Hmmm, might just remove them one by one? I mean I'm leaving all the cory cats in there, he doesn't bother them. I mean I'd love to find him a mate, but I wish it'd be another HRP, guess not from this batch...
 
I wouldn't get rid of the other three yet. The likelyhood of getting four males is slim. The parents of your fish produce about 70% females to males. Put the Alpha male in a breeding net for a while and let the other three sort it out. I would be surpised if another female doesn't step out for a subdominant male or even display for the caged male. I have a few extra females if you don't get lucky. Don't expect much of a hump on these guys. My old Alpha male tank boss didn't get one even when he had a harem of females to show off to.
 
Good call, I'm gonna put him in the breeder tomorrow morning and see how things go. They're beautiful fish btw cava, thank you again for the opportunity!
 
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