# super red harlequins



## Nick16 (29 Jan 2010)

hi guys, i have 4 harlequins i bought about a year ago, and they are the best coloured i have ever seen. ive looked in all the shops, everyones tanks on here and on the net and everyone seems to have lighter coloures. I bought a few recently hoping they would colour up to be the same and so far they havent. a while back i bought some hoping that, form a different store and they never fully coloured up. 

the ones i bought arent coppers but tbh are very similar. they really dont have that deep red around them. 

are mine some kind of super reds? or do they change colour as they age?


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## Garuf (29 Jan 2010)

To assume they're a super red compared to those in the shops is a bit silly. Shop fish are extremely stressed, often poorly treated and have just shipped so they colour away. Your will have been eating well, be settled have excellent water quality and there's every possibility their food is helping them colour up too as many food have algaes that influence red colouration.


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## rawr (30 Jan 2010)

Could they maybe be Espei or Hengli rasboras?


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## Nick16 (30 Jan 2010)

hi garuf, if you read it, i said that i have bought some recently. - a couple of weeks ago. 
they havent coloured up at all really, and are in the same community tank as the others, the same water, the same food etc. the only difference is they are smaller as i guess they are younger. 

they arent espei and i cant find any info on the hengli's. I think they are just 'normal' harlequins. they didnt cost me loads, so they arent a rare colouration or anything. im stuck!


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## Steve Smith (30 Jan 2010)

I think it's either Hengal's or Hengali, as a pose to Hengli  I think Hengal's Rasbora is the common name. It could just be that you got some particularly nice wild caught fish. It may be worth trying to breed them to see if you get the same strong colouration


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## OllieNZ (30 Jan 2010)

Any pics I think a couple of mine(out of 20) may be similarly coloured as they are showing deeper colour than the rest. All were bought as rasabora heteromorpha.

Regards

Ollie


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## Nick16 (30 Jan 2010)

i will try to get a picture. 
i think mine might be just really well coloured up, as they arent hengeli either. i might have a scot around the local shops and see if any have them for sale.


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## AndyOx (30 Jan 2010)

Hi Nick, 
             I have a shoal of harlequins which show similar colour variation. Partly responsible maybe that the different sexes are slightly different colours, the females are more coppery coloured (as well as rounder bellied) the males in my tank have a much more violet sheen on them once they are settled and mature. I have added fish to the shoal in the last 3 months or so and while some were noticeably paler on purchase, they have always settled to around the same colour (sex depending) Naturally those in spawning colours will display far stronger colouring than those not yet in breeding condition or just immature. As a secondary point, I find a very varied diet really helps with getting the best colours from Harlequins. Mine seem to especially appreciate tetra prima. Hope this helps. They are wonderful shoalers tho aren't they!

Andy


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## OllieNZ (30 Jan 2010)

> Partly responsible maybe that the different sexes are slightly different colours


  I was just sitting watching mine and was considering the same thing the darker coloured fish are slightly smaller and slenderer


> They are wonderful shoalers tho aren't they!


I love watching them  

Regards

Ollie


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## AndyOx (30 Jan 2010)

Hi Ollie (fellow Oxon person!), 
           You can't beat a shoal of harlequins in prime condition...... well you can with a stick but they won't like it   
Mine always go especially violet when I do the weekly water change and they look fantasatic.


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## OllieNZ (30 Jan 2010)

AndyOx said:
			
		

> You can't beat a shoal of harlequins in prime condition...... well you can with a stick but they won't like it


  My 14mth old son tries, he loves watching the fish and slapping the tank(makes them go faster) naturally he gets told off, I think he is now getting the idea havent caught him doing it recently  

Regards

Ollie


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## Nick16 (31 Jan 2010)

mine do get fed tetra prima, along with veg flakes, normal flake, powdered bloodworm, crushed algae and sinking pellets. 

i must get a live food cluture going, instead of keep buying it!


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## AndyOx (31 Jan 2010)

Yea I hatch a bunch of brine shrimp every so often for mine, they love it! I don't buyu live bloodworm or daphnia. I did used to years ago but I found I always got outbreaks of disease and harlequins can be quite sensitive. Instead they get the gamma irradiated frozen foods of various kinds to keep it varied. Their favourites are probably brineshrimp w/spirulina and cyclops. Just a little extra effort is very well rewarded with these fish!


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## Nick16 (31 Jan 2010)

could you post a few pics of you live food set ups and the products you use to make it? - that would be amazing. 
i suppose my rainbows that im going to get will gooble the live food like no tommorow.


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## AndyOx (31 Jan 2010)

Hi Nick,
Yea sure, I'll be setting one up this week so I'll take some photo's for you. Basically I just use a 500ml bottle (an old coke bottle is fine) that gives you plenty of brine shrimp in a little over a day at mid 20 degrees. I use an airstone to keep the water turning over, Waterlife shell less artemia cysts. I always buy the shell less ones as I know the fish will usually reject unhatched cysts but I also know they can lodge within the gut of the fish and cause trouble later in life. I usually do one 500 ml bottle a week and will harvest it out over a couple of days. Will take some pics for you when I set mine up next


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## paul.in.kendal (31 Jan 2010)

Hi guys, great timing with this thread.  I'm sitting here drip-acclimatising the first ten members of a harlequin shoal for my 200 litre tank, thinking "What the hell do I feed these things?" - and now I know!


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## Nick16 (31 Jan 2010)

they eat everything. 

i find good old aquarian tropical fish flake, with some tetra pro veg flakes in there as well. (you can crush some of it up in your fingers to make it easier for them to eat)

be careful with tetra prima. It tends to get stuck in their throat and can choke them to death. (if this happens i chase them around the tank with a small net, and in their haste to get away they normally spit the food out)
if you are going to use prima, soak it in some water first (tank water is fine), just a pinch or two in a small tub is fine, therefore it is softer and they can eat it much better. Prima is for bigger fish really, like discus and loaches. but my cories love it! 
bloodworm is a good'un as well. buy some pellets and then crush about half of it up into powder. if you have plecs, or corries or amano shrimp, they will eat the lumps as well that sink, so they can have some food. 
as long as fish get a varied diet they are fine!


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## paul.in.kendal (31 Jan 2010)

Nick16 said:
			
		

> as long as fish get a varied diet they are fine!


I knew I needed to get a range of foods, but didn't know what.  I'll start collecting.  At the moment I've got Hikari micro wafers - and that's it!  People seem to rave about red astax crumb, so I might get some of that, but I'd like to support my LFS (even though it's a bit pants!), so I'll see what frozen and live foodstuffs they've got.


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## OllieNZ (31 Jan 2010)

Nick16 said:
			
		

> be careful with tetra prima. It tends to get stuck in their throat and can choke them to death.



Thanks for the info. Coincidently I just picked some up today the stuff I got is mini granules will these need the same treatment?
Ive been trying to get some photos they wont sit still long enough for my old point and shoot and now ive got flat batteries   has any one else had any luck?

Regards 
Ollie


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## AndyOx (31 Jan 2010)

Hi Ollie, 
           They'll be fine with the mini-granules version as they are much smaller, it just doesn't sink quite so fast. Re photos, I'm just trying to get to grips with that! I find I can get a nice clear photo of one or two but never the whole shoal. Rummy nosed tetras are even more tricky!  

Andy


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## OllieNZ (31 Jan 2010)

Andy can you get photos of the two diffent colours?

Thanks

Ollie


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## Nick16 (31 Jan 2010)

i tried using my sis's sony camera and even thats having trouble as they are darting around. Its a mission!


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## paul.in.kendal (1 Feb 2010)

FWIW, here's a picture of one of my harlequins - but nothing beats the flash and sparkle of the real thing:


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## Nick16 (1 Feb 2010)

they are darker than the ones i have got recently, but the few existing ones i have are much darker than that. thing is my camera is aweful and with the flash on, the colours of the fish go!


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## OllieNZ (5 Feb 2010)

My best attempt sorry the photo is not that great they wouldnt sit still (the 4mp point and shoot doesn't help) but it clearly shows the difference in colour. 
Total respect to Saintly for his macros  thats an amazing skill.

Regards

Ollie


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## Nick16 (7 Feb 2010)

i cant get a shot of mine, but they are in an old shot of my old 240L. 
you can clearly see the few that are a super deep red and those that are more pale which seem to be the ones the LFS's are selling. 
its not the best shot as they are not sideays on but you get the idea.


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