pics of my hap

He is the crown jewel of my african tank. :) :D

The pictures don't quite do him justice. He's even nicer to behold in person. Haps are very elegant fish. Though aggressive, they seem to be much more graceful than mbuna.

I really like my mbuna a lot though as well. My red zebra and my cynotilapia male (when he's in breeding dress) are gorgeous.
 
Beautiful, How big is he? I have one in my tank that is about 3 1/2" and finally starting to color up.

Just a question, I have seen pics with red empresses taht have the black line down the body(like mine) and pics of them without the black(like yours). So why do some have the line and some loose it, does it have to do with size?Breeding colors?
 
He's almost 5" now and his color started to come in when he was about 3".

He does actually have the bars you are referring to but they have faded steadily as he got older and the rest of his coloration started to come out.

One of the great things about haps are that they are basically in color all of the time. Some fish are pretty drab until they get into breeding color (such as my cynotilapia). It's worth noting that although the colors of this empress are there all of the time when he is courting a female or putting on a display of dominance against one of the smaller males they do intensify a bit.

Fish are amazing in that they are like chameleons... Their color can literally change and intensify within seconds.
 
if you want yours to show some unreal colour throw in atleast 4 females with him with in 3 days of swawning their colour is outstanding thats y i have 3 colonys lol so worth the money best hap of them ill IMO
 
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