H. cristatus

[Mike Wise]

Last Fall I got some H. cristatus from a fellow forum member. I haven't gotten to do much with them since then. I herniated a disk in my lower back and was basically out of commission for the past 2 months. These fish have been in a mostly bare 29 gallon quarantine tank all of this time. I'm finally able to hobble around on a partly numb leg and get some regular maintenance and food into my fish. Well, 2 have paired off and yesterday had a plaque of about 200 eggs on the base of a sponge filter. They seem to be doing fine; not overly aggressive toward the other fish, but protective of their spawn. They look like the H. cristatus in Lamboj's book - vertical bars on the flanks, small caudal spot, etc. I had a fish called cristatus in the 80s, but these fish didn't show the vertical bars nor the caudal spot. These were very mellow fish, just like the fish I now have. My main question is are the fish that I now have the 'real' H. cristatus? If so, what were the fish in the 80s that we called 'H. cristatus'?

 

[viejo]

Hi Mike,
I believe that I am familiar with the fish in question :wink:. I'm not at all shore if these fish are kosher cristatus or not. They certainly are ringers for lamboj's cristatus but don't seem to be exactly the fish described & pictured by Loiselle. Here are pics of the fish presently being promoted as h. .cf cristatus UL-1 compared with the specimen illustrated in Loiselle's key. They do look like the 'old-time' cristatus as I recall. As to aggression, I think that red jewels as a whole generally get more of a bad rap than they deserve, especially the smaller species. I am presently keeping cristatus, sp. 'Moanda' & UL-1 in the same community as an experiment & they are all about sixes in aggressiveness ( Kribs & are nastier)




http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj163/oldwheat/truecristatus.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj163/oldwheat/cristatusOgbariver.jpg

 

[freshwaterfishfan]

Larry,

So what 'cristatus' did I give to you? I got mine wild caught from Rehoboths Aquatics.
Steve

 

[viejo]

Steve,
That would be the one being referred to as H. .cf cristatus UL-1 until this all gets eventually resolved ( I hope). That is the one pictured in my last post. Do you still have these & what did you do to get the eggs to hatch? Also, did Toyin happen to mention where they were caught ( Nigeria perhaps)?
Larry

 

[Mike Wise]

OK, so the fish that I have are called "H. cf. cristatus UL-1" at present. Thanks Larry, "and thanks for the fish"!:wink:

 

[viejo]

No Mike, the fish that you have are cristatus ( for now) and are from stock obtained from Jeff @ Aquatic Clarity. UL-1 & cristatus - sensu Loiselle are pictured in my recent post in this thread. This is Jeff's picture of his breeder female.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj163/oldwheat/H-cristatus-female-fry-clo-1.jpg

 

[Mike Wise]

I thought that I'd add some Q&D (quick and dirty:biggrin photos of some of my H. cristatus:

Male in neutral dress:

Female with fry (2 days freeswimming):

Pair with fry:

 

[viejo]

Great timing Mike! I just Emailed some info to you. It would seem that the Germans are calling this fish h. sp. 'Kongo' & as the name infers, is most likely from the Congo. The plot thickens...

 

[Captain Jim]

These look much like my fish at http:/jimbosstuff.shutterfly.com

 

[JG]

Beautiful fish. I'd like to see some of those north of the border.