Today In The Fishroom~1/03/12 Amphilophus hogaboomorum

I have a couple dozen of these juvenile F1 A. hogaboomorum's in various tanks acting as dither fish. Some of them were getting fairly large (5-10cm). I had a few open tanks and decided to move some of the better looking specimens to start another breeding pair.

Here's one of the smaller females @5cm:



And a few of the males @10cm. One of the things that I find pretty consistent with this particular species is the beautiful fins. Even when we collected some of the wild fish, I noticed that they had beautiful trailers on the dorsal and anal fins.





Here's the adult F0 male...squaring off with the other large male in the tank. You can still see the beautiful fins.



And the pair. I like the way there is a distinct color difference between male and female. The female in this photo is beginning to prepare for breeding. When that happens, her coloration turns into a much brighter shade of orange.





Pre-spawning always begins with the male gently pushing her around the breeding area...a pot near the right side of the tank.





She just so happened to be pushed flat into an upper flash, illuminating that orange for the photo.

Very nice fish! I'll have to research their profile!

You probably will find very little on the fish. If I can fill in any of the blanks, glad to do it. What I can tell you is that they are only found in the Rio Cholteca in Honduras, closely related to the A. citrinellum, and are mild mannered compared to most in that species group.

Thanks "mom".

Very nice! Both male and female looks great.