Red Top Hongi-Australian

[danotaylor]

I had never heard of a "Swedish Hongi" until recently and have yet to see any in person that matched the "standard" red top hongi I kept and bred in Australia in 2008-10. The red tops on lilac/mauve bodies were amazing...not tons of red in the males but the females were second to none that I have seen available in the last few years. I dredged up a few pics off an old lap top tonite...these guys were smoking hot!
Top 2 images are the alpha male. #rd image is beta male. Last 2 images were the primo ladies.





Seeing them again now I sure do miss em...beautiful stock!

[kodyboy]

Very nice!

[Steve]

Purdy! That's a species I have never owned but always liked the looks of them. Are they very aggressive? Seems I heard they were.

[jkeeler]

Here is the original Sweden version you asked about

https://youtu.be/XtAwc6LqJ5Q

[Ron]

On those Australian fish, I think I like the female coloration better than the males. 

[danotaylor]

Here is the original Sweden version you asked about

https://youtu.be/XtAwc6LqJ5Q

Stunning John! Are there any in the US that are that caliber? I have seen a few sold here as "swedish" that are no different to a normal lab. hongi.

[danotaylor]

On those Australian fish, I think I like the female coloration better than the males. 

True that Ron...the males were very handsome but it was an unusual switch to see such brightly colored girls...when they were holding the color vibrancy was way less...prob so as to not draw the boys attention

[danotaylor]

Purdy! That's a species I have never owned but always liked the looks of them. Are they very aggressive? Seems I heard they were.

G'day Steve. They are not aggro as zeb's but a little more than elec yellows. The issue with mine was the persistence of the male...the dude never let up dawn to dusk...saying that though I didn't ever suffer losses either

[Down With The Cichness]

Deep reds that will slowly take over face and cheeks. Theses guys are still young ranging from 2 1/4"-2.5"

[danotaylor]

Deep reds that will slowly take over face and cheeks. Theses guys are still young ranging from 2 1/4"-2.5"

Beautiful...those are very nice...best I have seen here for sure...thanks for taking the time to post the pic...I wish we had a chance to put my girls with your boy there...

[Down With The Cichness]

I'm pretty sure my line is pretty distant from the original but its a start. With careful line breeding I KNOW I can improve. What designates the Sweden line is the deep reds (not dark orange) that take over the face and cheeks

[Down With The Cichness]

In this picture I saturated the reds to show the coloration that isn't shown by my crappy can phone. This IS an edited pic ONLY to show the reds that my camera can't pick up. Here you can see the subtle reds coming in on face and cheeks as well as starting in the anal fin

[danotaylor]

Nice one...the 1st phone pic looks pretty awesome as it is actually...
what sort of color do your females have? Have you ever grown out any of your own fry to see what % of the male progeny get the strong red gene from the dad or do they all?
You're makin me wanna grab some...

[Down With The Cichness]

Nice one...the 1st phone pic looks pretty awesome as it is actually...
what sort of color do your females have? Have you ever grown out any of your own fry to see what % of the male progeny get the strong red gene from the dad or do they all?
You're makin me wanna grab some...

No I haven't grown anything out yet. I have people asking for them so once they have what they want I will grow some out for myself. The females are very dark orange, not as deep of red, comparable to SRT males.

[Down With The Cichness]

They seem to drop color when holding.