Hongi island Lab

[chennes]

Does anyone out there have one of these? Are they really that gorgeous? Also, what is their temperament like?

http://www.cichlidforums.com/postimages/2002-09-02/442-001.jpg?
(Photo from Armke's online: http://www.ohiexchange.com/armke/list.htm)

[SGypsyMermaid]

mmmmm--gorgeous!!--bet that one would make a nice species tank, too.

[wkwan]

Hi, I have a variant of the lab hongi, I have the lab hongi SRT kimpuma. I got about 6 frys from a friend, whose adults looks incredible. The frys are now about 1.5 inches and showing good color. The tricky thing about this type of cichlid is that male and female exhibit the same colors (female being drabbier). I will post pictures as soon as I master my digital camera.

William

p.s. temperament is the same as yellow lab currently, however with cichlids you never know. friends one minute enemies in another.

[Boilermaker]

Chennes, just purchased a trio three weeks ago both females holding at the time of purchase, saved one batch of 25 fry.
I also have the red top kimpuna WkWan mentioned, has a fire orange top and fins, I just recently took pics. haven't developed film, I think Armkes site also has a good picture of the red top.
Hard to tell on tempermant mine is like a yellow lab, there is a large one at the lfs that has a nasty tempermant, but you would to if you were in a 20g at the lfs.

Good Luck

[chennes]

If their temperament is good, I really would like to do a species tank of them. Any idea about the ratio of males to females that I should shoot for? I only have one yellow lab, so I don't have any experience with their interacting with the same species.

Chris

[Boilermaker]

When I picked mine out, there were 6 in a 29g at the lfs 2 males, 4 females, all 4 females were holding, with the subdominant male up by the powerhead.
I only took a trio with the dominant male, If I had the money I would of took all of them since they were breeding so well.

[hyperdive]

I have these guys. I have 2 male and 5 female fish. All are either F1 or F2.

They are very skittish and spend a lot of the time hiding. The fry are also skittish and freak out when I go near the fry tanks. None of my other fish do this. I have a breeding setup with A. calvus, D. compressiceps, P. saulosi, several Aulonocara, multipunctatus to name a few. All these fish are fine, but the hongi freak out constantly. They share a 4x2x2 with a few Dimi comp fry and a sailfin pleco.

Andy

[SGypsyMermaid]

i had a n. venustus that acted like that...dashed around the tank trying to hide like an angelfish. from my reading, it seemed that this was not unusual for the venustus. are your hongi typical, or did you just get a hysterical group?

[chennes]

It's intersesting that yours are skittish - my yellow lab is the least skittish fish in my tank. I would have expected them to be similar.

Chris

[ferdelance]

Does anyone know where I can mailorder one of these fish? :?:
or any stores, I live in Knoxville, TN

[Boilermaker]

Welcome Ferdelance, you should be able to order these from Armkes,
Chennes left a link under the pict. just click your mouse on the link and it will take you to african cichlid heaven.

[Boilermaker]

Welcome Hyperdive, thats wierd the cichlids I keep are all fairly skiddish except the Lab. Hongi, In fact I was wondering why the Cop. Kadango I have are so skiddish.

[hyperdive]

I have L. caeruleus and have kept L. freibergi before with no problems.

I wonder if it is because they are F1? Maybe the Wildcaught parents were skittish and the fry became the same.

They are in the bottom row of my rack, so maybe that also has something to do with it. I'll move them in the next week up to a higher level and see if it works.

Andy

[Woot]

I got 3 Lab. Hongi red tops, mine don't look quite like the one in the picture but similar. They were pretty timid at first, but recently one has started to become more dominant but not too bad. Aggression similar to my Yellow lab male. Neat cichlid if you can get ahold of them, I got mine up in Chicago. I'm not sure if I have a female yet or not. I got a couple pictures of mine on the cichlidgallery if you wanna check em out.

BTW mine aren't skittish at all, the whole tank goes into a frenzie when I'm close to the tank. Probably because they think its feeding time, they just swim around like normal when I'm sitting at the computer or not too close to the tank.

http://www.cichlidgallery.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=woot

[SGypsyMermaid]

wooooot! woot! woot!--welcome back, guy!

[Boilermaker]

Gypsy was it that good? :shock: I want to try whatever you just had :twisted: On second thought maybe not :lol:

[SGypsyMermaid]

:rofl:

[BadAndy]

i have a red top hongi lab and he is a beautiful fish. My favorite of my malawi's. The red is gorgeous (and I'm color blind- partially). I can only imagine what it really looks like.

BadAndy

[SGypsyMermaid]

hey--welcome back, bad andy--glad you caught up with us! :D

[Boilermaker]

Welcome Back Woot and BadAndy :) I really thought you changed your name from BadAndy to HyperDive.

[Pseudotropheus_Flavus]

I have a wild caught trio of these gorgeous fish, and yes they really are this gorgeous. They do however have quite a temperment and the teeth to match. I also have pseudotropheus polits, flavus, and demasoni males and this fish is king over all of them. I've only been able to have this trio so I don't know if I just obtained such a viscious male or what. My tank is heavily caved and is 200 gallons. Caution should be advised on smaller tank setups and with less aggressive fish.

[SGypsyMermaid]

welcome p. flavus--i would die for a 200 gallon tank...drool... :mrgreen: