Aquamojo

POTS works...but since you are looking to the poll for a decision...why not consider "Albert"...aka "Mad Al"...after the board.

What a great looking little Citrinellum. Well done and done well.

The F0 P. Fredrichsthali from Cenote Escondido are growing really fast...surprisingly so. I have two of the seven that have paired up. Pretty apparent not only with their actions...but their coloration. It looks like someone inserted batteries and are backlighting their yellow...very pretty fish. Of all of the grow out tanks, these fish are the most interactive. I have spent a lot of time hand holding shrimp while they actively nip it from my fingers. they also have NO problem coming after my fingers and hands when I have them in the tank for cleaning. VERY cool little Parachromis.

I don't often get as excited as I am with this batch of photos. The Honduran Managuense are breeding yet again. This time around I allowed access to the female. She visited for a few hours and laid eggs that night. She generally hides the wiggler in the far corner until they are free swimming. I didn't pay that much attention to the amount of wigglers. I went down today to find an AMAZING number of fry. Here's the female with a batch of the fry. Thre is literally three times this amount in two other places in the tank. I've never seen a spawn as large. Here's the male: And here's the amazing part...I was fortunate enough to have the fry gather at the front of the glass. Just so you have some perspective on size: Now for the cool part: And my absolute favorite:

Having seen many of your pictures, I think the reason you see this behaviour in your fish Mo is because your skills at aquascaping rival those of photographing your fish. Because you give them the substrate and plants, wood, etc. to display thier natural behaviour, you are rewarded with being able to observe it. Kudos to you again. Those pictures above of that fish working his mojo (pun intended) are very interesting and such pictures never get old around here. Thanks Dean. I had to laugh a little when I read that. I have all kinds of strange things in my tanks. I just never let most of them in the shots. A quick inventory...teapots, coffe mugs, creamers in the shape of a breast, fire bricks, PVC, action figurines, crystal angelfish and of course a variety of pots from ceramic to brick. Several years ago I won an award from my previous employer, NBC. It was for selling two million dollars worth of advertising in a month. Really nice award made of crystal...about ten inches high. It now resides in my P. Bifasciatum tank. Over the years I have made some mistakes with the tank decorations. My wife got a pewter mug that I put into the tank. It unfortunately started to dissolve, leeched something into the water and killed the fish. All of the plastic and silk plants I get from Michaels Arts & Craft store. Same stuff as sold in the LFS...only a fraction of the price. Before they go into a tank they are soaked for two weeks in a bucket of water...changed every other day with hot water. I had dye from one leech into a tank. Didn't kill the fish, but colored the water enough to alert me that long term exposure wouldn't be condusive to good fishy health. That said....thanks for the props. It's nice to catch them doing something other than just swimming around. Mo

Most that I have owned have some sort of OCD...be it digging gravel, tearing up sponges, tank decor...etc. This one's behaviour of simply moving the pieces around...and I mean he really WORKS IT...is unique to the experience I've had. This lone male is in a 75 gallon tank by himself. Bigger is obviously better...but this works. Thanks. Remember when you get one they are particularly aggressive to conspecifics...ther own kind. Your best chance of getting two is buying 4 or 5 and letting them grow out together. They'll let you know who's going to be around for the long haul.

Thanks. I have only ever heard them referred to as Paratheraps. But I would imagine that at some point they were lumped into the Vieja moniker. One of the ways I draw the male Zonatum into the area I have lit with photos is by using the silk plants in the tank. He is in constant gardener...moving the foliage back and forth . Mostly I just wait for him to finish and come into the lighting's sweet spot with the foiage in the background. I thought it might make an interesting series of photos showing his obsessive/compulsive when it comes to his tank decor. This predictable behaviour makes it easy to photograph. He generally starts by diving in and surveying the area: Tucking in the corners along the side of the tank: This particular plant always give him the most trouble as it is pushed around by the current. I put my hand in the tank and move it to the other side of the tank and within seconds he is grabbing it and pushing (pulling) it back home.

The "P" stand for Paratheraps. Thanks. Dean...I have photos of the fish smaller...still with fairly nice coloration. IMHO most of the Vieja/Paratheraps species is similar in appearance at that sze. Here's two shots of the juveniles...a little smaller than the one poste. Romaine Lettuce leaf for comparison. Hee's the male with a few of his siblings that he eventually killed. That's a Persei on the right.

What a difference a few years makes. Here's the male in August '05: Today:

Yes it is. Really nicely colored Managuense. Thanks all.

F0 Blue Labridens Male from Taninul Springs: F0 Male Managuense. The pair is breeding once again. I changed things up a bit. Up until now the female and male were never on the same side of the divider. I just recently cut a "love door" for the female to visit the male. Within 24 hours she laid eggs.

I have been asked that question many times over. It's really hard to pick a favorite. I would have to say my large Managuense, Jumbo. But as speces go, I really like all of the Parachromis, Paratheraps and Chuco species of fish.

Thanks all. The Zonatum is doing great. I will photograph him real soon.

I am really enjoying having this fish. The colors are simply beautiful. Here's the breeding male. The back half of the female. And the back half of the male. One of four Synspilum in the 300 gallon tank with the Gourami. If you have followed my posts you might remember the Synspilum in a previous photo. He was pretty beat up. They all seem to have spruce up a bit. Female: The other male. There are two in the tank. Synspilum on the half shell. I caught this big guy getting out of the breeding area the only way he could...sideways.

No...not really. Yours is the first time I have ever heard feedback on it. It doesn't bother me. It would be different if it was going on a wall. Just for grins and giggles...

I've been working overtime photographing momma and fry...photo and video. I got some excellent footage of mom interacting with the fry which I will post when I get a chance to edit it down. Very cool stuff. Believe it or not...the fry are all in the gravel. Mom's surveying the brood. Couple seconds later after some major signaling (body shimmying) from mom. And they are off for a tour of the 150 gallon tank. All of the other Labridens are literally in the far right corner of the tank. Mom's in charge. When I stated previously that I thought the fry were large...I wasn't exageratting. Here's two shots of the group. You can actually see faces on the group. Crazy. Mom and fry. More to follow.

Yes...but not in breeding dress. They snuck one in under the radar. Didn't see the spawning.

How can it get much better? This...the H. Labridens Yellow from Media Luna bred. Good news for the hobby. Totally caught me by surprise. She was in this pot all week. I looked for eggs and didn't see anything. Ends up she had wigglers in there the entire time. There was a period of time there that she was hiding in a piece of driftwood. Must have had the eggs there and moved them to the pot. I didn't see any of the males color up. But it's all good.

Rapps is selling them right now. Here's a photo of a wild adult from Escondido that Juan Miquel sent me. I've had Freddies in the past. These are a very nice "flavor" of the fish.

The female Media Luna Yellow Labridens has set up shop and ready to breed. Time for one of the gentleman in the tank to accomodate. This one was taken with a very slow shutter speed....thus the blur. I just liked the way it looked. Would have been an awesome photo if it was crisp. Just playing with some different settings. This is one of the very few natural light photos I've taken of the fish. I panned with the female so the background is blurred. SHot with a very low shutter speed 1/15th (hand held) and a wide aperture...so the dpth of field is shallow as well. I like the shot. The end...literally! P. Freddie female waiting for the big pellet drop. The male second from the right is stuffed full of pellet. When I photograph them I only drop a couple pellet into the water at a time so as not to foul the shot with any debris. This guy did a bang up job at grabbing whatever hit the water. You can't tell by this photo...but he's the largest by about 3/4 inch.

I just saw your question. Interesting in that the Parachromis cichlids have a LOT of fry...several hundred. If you think about the logic here it's amazing. In most bodies of water they are one of....if not THE apex predator. SO why so many? You would think that being top dog (fish) in the pond you wouldn't need as many. I am sure that predation by other fish wipes out the majority. I have often thought that it reflects back on survival of the fittest. The best fry make it through to adulthood. Thanks for the props folks. Quinn, all I can say is that if you ever get an oportunity...go. The majority of what I own is F0 Stock. A while back I was asked specifically what I had in the tanks. Here's a NEAR tally: 6 F0 P. Managuense Sp. Honduras (plus fry) 2 F1 P. Managuense (Jumbo & one other) 3 F0 P. Motaguense Sp. Rio Blanco (pair and a spare female) 9 F0 P. Fredrichsthali Sp. Cenote Escondido 24 F1 P. Loiselli Sp. La Cieba (Yellow Headed Parachromis) 1 F1 P. Dovii 6 F0 H. Labridens "yellow" 6 F0 H. Labridens "blue" Sp. Taninul" 7 F0 H. Labridens "green" 6 F0 H. Labridens "white" 8 F0 H. Carpinte Rio Salto 1 H. Cyanaguttatum 1 H. Carpinte "Turquoise" 3 1 H. Carpinte "Rio Verde" 2 H. Carpinte "Sugar Creek" (Named on the location collected...by sugar cane plant) 1 H. Minckleyi 5 F0 A. Hogaboomarum 2 A. Macracanthus 3 F1 A. Zaliosum 3 F0 A. Robertsoni Sp. Red Cheek 5 P. Bifascitum 5 P. Synspilum 2 V. Heterospilum 4 P. Breidohri 1 P. Zonatum 1 Ex-C. Pearsei 3 V. Ufermanni 5 P. Fenestratum (3 Pink - 2 Calico) 1 V. Regani 3 F0 C. Micropthalmus 4 C. Intermedium 1 F1 C. Umbriferum Sp Panama Green 12 F0 C. Cutteri 2-3 dozen (not sure) A. Nigrofasciatum (Rio Monga & Rio Chuloteca) 4 C. Honduran Red Point 4 Osphronemus goramy 1 Albino Osphronemus goramy 3-4 dozen Metynsis (dithers in various tanks) Couple dozen Pleco in various sizes and flavors (Zebra, Abarasque, Adonis, Leopard...) 1 S. Eupterus 1 Woodcat 3 S. Angelicus a handful of smaller bottom feeders 5 Butterfly fish 20 Gourami (Blue, Sunset, Snakeskin, Opal) in the pond. There might be a few more...but for the most part that's the list.

A few more from the same session.

Black1031 on Waterwolves has them.

I check in and poke around just about every day. Sometime work gets in the way and a couple days slip by. I currenly have a dozen or so 3/4" fry from this pair. They've been promised to a buddy locally. I generally just feed the fry to other fish. I can see that Quinn is in Canada. Where are you located? I think Rapps has them and Ken Davis does as well. This isn't the yellow-headed parachromis I was talking about a while back. That's a different fish...Loiselli. These Managuense were collected in Honduras. Sorry for the confusion. In the meantime, here's more of the same. Extreme Close Up Here's the original shot: A little closer: And even closer: ...And then there's this...what a brood:

They are solo in a 100 gallon tank. Dean...were you saying I don't reply much?