Hemichromis Frempongi

[cornbread_5]

Ok i have three of these guys growing out ranging from 2 to 3 inches , my question is one has red going down its underside and i was wondering does that mean it female the other two dont have red at all and the biggest i believe is the male and the second one is one with the red

 

[viejo]

The one with the red is probably @ the top of the pecking order & therefore likely a male IMHO. They should all show red in time. I'm not sure how reproductively precocious Frempongi is but most hemichromis are markedly so. Might not be too long before you see courtship activity considering that the species is the smallest of the 5-spot species ( and supposedly the most aggressive )

 

[tjudy]

All of the breeders of this species I have talked to started with young fish and waited a year before spawning. I wonder about the size descriptions. I have seen three adult groups of this fish, and in all three the large dominant males were 8-9". My H. elongatus are smaller. I have not managed to keep a group of H. fasciatus from killing each other long enough to see how big they spawn at. My H. frempongi are all 2.5 - 3.0 inches and some are starting to show red.

 

[cornbread_5]

i was figured the largest one would be the at the top but maybe u right the one showing red is head in charge , but the two biggest ones hang around each other when i get some space i am going to relocate the smallest of the three as he gets picked on a little

 

[tjudy]

In each of the breeding pairs I have seen, the males were larger than the females. Color was identical though.

 

[freshwaterfishfan]

Ted,

Would you say H. fasciatus is the nastiest jewel you've ever kept (maybe even the nastiest fish you've ever kept)? I think so, but frempongi owners don't believe me.
I always tell this story - I had a group of 10- H. fasciatus in a 75 G (my biggest tank at the time). Lots of hiding places/etc - no avail, they beat the crap out of each other till only 4 remained. I traded them to a local fish store...1 week later the fish store was out of business... Coincidence?
Steve

 

[cornbread_5]

i am just now experiencing frempongi but i had 12 fascitaus before and i down to one , and he is a beast , he killed an istalumn that was bigger then him and beat up a pair of zillii and the male was almost twice his size

 

[tjudy]

My frempongi seem to have settled in for the moment (knock on wood) and are not killing each other. I started with 18 and now have 10. However, these are F2 fish. The only H. fasciatus I have had were all wild juveniles that wiped each other out. The same thing happened with wild frempongi when I got them (though I only started with six).

What we need a brave soul to do is get six frempongi fry and six fasciatus fry of the same age, generation from wild and size and see who kills who fastest.

Yes... either H. frempongi or H. fasciatus qualify as the meanest cichlids I have ever kept.