Here's the same male being informed by the breeder that he crossed the halfway point of the tank. You can see from both of those photos that these fish have beautiful trailers on their fins. The adult that we netted in the Rio Cholteca in Honduras had the same...something I didn't associate with fish in the wild.
Here's the pair on their side looking over at the male. Occasionally the female will wander over onto the left side of the tank. The male there will immediately begin flaring and posturing...I think to try and get her interest. I beleive that the dynamics of having that pressure from the "extra" male helps to keep the pair actively spawning. The side benefit to me, is being able to watch the cichlid fish behavior.
The female of the species has a much redder coloration. All of these photos were taken using three Nikon SB-900 flash units setting two side by side and one in the middle and a little further back pointed slightly forward toward the front of the tank. This helps to fill in some of the shadow areas as well as help separate the foreground from the background. In the very first photo, I caught the left side flash and the middle...illuminating the fins and leaving the front of the lead fish slightly in shadow. I liked the effect (all by chance by the way). Most of the lights are focused on an area about two foot square. This is what I call the 'sweet spot" and generally try and wait to get the fish to swim into that particular zone to get the photo. I only mention it becasue when the female hit the sweet spot, she lit up like a Christmas tree.
One of the comments most often asked is how I get the colors to pop on the fish. It's all about the light. The more you can EFFECTIVELY throw on the subject. The more light, the more control over your options on camera settings. As an example, these were shot at an ISO of 100 at f32 using a shutter speed of 1/250. It helps when they voluntarily step right into the staging area. :D
