Convict or Honduras Red Point

rtopa

Member
I purchased what was labeled as a black convict a couple of weeks ago. The fish is developing a red color in it's tail and fins. I didn't think Convicts had red tails. Could this be a Honduras Red Point instead?
Sorry for the poor picture, having some bloom at the moment. I'll try to get a better one when tank clears up.
 

Attachments

  • Convict & Oscar.webp
    Convict & Oscar.webp
    61.8 KB · Views: 2
What I thought was bloom may have started that way, but it turned out to be one of my cats unplugging my filter. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So I've spent last night and today recovering my fish and tank. Gotta recheck tank parameters this evening and determine if I need to do another water change tomorrow. Parameters were much better this morning but ammonia still up between 0.5 and 1. Going by fish behavior I'd say things are moving in the right direction. They're now out dancing in the current. The Blue Acara (Ghost) likes to come to the end of the tank near to where I'm sitting and grin at me. He and the Oscar often follow me around the room. I can hear the Oscar calling "Is it snack time?"
 
This photo shows the red tail a little better than the previous one did. You can also see a little red on the back end of his dorsal fin.
 

Attachments

  • Victor.webp
    Victor.webp
    109.2 KB · Views: 2
I like him. He's a feisty little guy. One of these days my tank will clear up and I'll get better quality photos of all my babies.
 
Looks like a standard convict cichlid to me. Convicts are actually very diverse.

Here's a female I had a few years back:
1657907923322.webp

This one you can see the orange on the belly super clearly (versus some others you can't), and have a very nice orange and some blue in the dorsal fins.

I've had some that had more green, more blue, etc. I've had convicts where the body color is like this, where it's super dark. I've had ones where the body was very white, contrasting sharply the black bars.

With that said, convicts and HRPs are (possibly) considered the same species now anyways.

With that said, varieties/morphs/collection localities/etc. matters to us as fishkeepers anyways, so the continued separation may still continue nonetheless.
 
It's funny, it depends on the day whether the red fins show. Last few days the red seems to have almost gone away. I guess I'll just have to wait until he grows up a bit to know what his final coloration is. Victor is still somewhere between 2.5 - 3" long so he's got a bit of growing to do.

I love the fins on yours. I like the definition in all his fins. Victor's fins are mostly still clear with just the red that shows sometimes. I'm really looking forward to him growing up.
 
It's been nearly a month and Victor is now about 3.5" long. My whole tank has settled as much as is probably going too. All fishes have found their own little portion of the tank and everyone seems to be relatively happy. Victor's spot is in the front corner of the tank where the water filter has blown a valley into the substrate so I get to see him more than most of the other fish because that's right by my chair. He's such a beautiful little guy. He and my Firemouth (Thor) and my Taiwan Reef Cichlid (Rusty) keep a game of tag going off and on throughout the day so it's very entertaining.
 
This photo shows the red tail a little better than the previous one did. You can also see a little red on the back end of his dorsal fin.
I have many like that, also with yellow. Out of my black n whites I have gorgeous light blues and pinks. On my way to work,will send pictures later if you are interested.
 
Back
Top Bottom