As I have now come full circle with this species I thought I would share the journey on here as inspiration to others.

For the record I am not selling these fish privately so please do not pm me about buying some. They are currently being sold exclusively by Hollywoods Fish Farm who also ship country wide I believe.

First some pictures of what the fish look like now a little over 2 years after I bought them. They are fully matured and the male regularly spawns with one of the other females. ie. they do not form lasting pairs. The largest fish are around 15cm in length and are relatively peaceful towards each other. It is important to keep these fish over a fine substrate such as sand to allow them to sift the substrate through their gills when eating.

 

October 2015: I bought 7 newly imported youngsters. These were the first fish ever to be imported into New Zealand:

March 2016: Growing quickly but still not a lot of red on their forehead:

Dec. 2016: The dominant male is now showing full sexual maturity colours and are starting to impress the girls:

May 2017: First couple formed and the female's forehead is as red as the male's. Their spawn on the glass bottom but end up eating the fry:

Sept 2017: The male has now spawned with another female and has been removed from the tank as it was him eating the fry. The fry has just started to swim freely but often seek shelter in their mothers mouth:

A week later and the female has been removed as the fry are now capable of seeking food themselves:

Feb 2018: The young has grown rapidly in an 800L tank with sand substrate, heavy filtration and weekly 50% water changes. The have now reached the same size as the ones I originally bought. Circle completed:

 

 

 

Awesome fish and great pics. Congratulations

Great write-up, and beautiful fish too!

Good job, nice fish!

Congrats, very nice photos too.

Awesome job. Beautiful fish.