The Sire is royal blue grizzle HMPK with a nicely shaped body. The caudal has a pretty good D-shape although some rays in the bottom part are slightly elongated. The dorsal has a good volume with long front rays. The anal fin has a nice trapezoid shape. The ventrals have length but could have a slightly better shape. The dame is steel blue grizzle HMPK with a nice bodyshape, smooth topline and balanced finnage.
With this cross I hope to fix the strong bodies, the smooth topline and the balanced finnage. The offspring (F1) will be lightbody (grizzle) with a royal blue or steel blue base.

19/09/21: The pair spawned.
20/09/21: The fry hatched.
22/09/21: The fry entered the free-swimming stage and the Sire was removed.
02/10/21: Two week old fry! The body already starts to show some iridescence.

07/11/21: The fry are developing nicely and feeding well on tubifex and crumbled granulate. The first colors start to appear. As expected the fry are either royal blue or steel blue based.

13/11/21: 8-week old grizzle HMPK fry!

30/11/21: 10-week old grizzle HMPK fry!

22/01/22: Royal blue and steel blue based HMPK brothers at 18-weeks of age! I absolutely love their appearance (although their form still needs some work).

31/01/22: My favorite royal blue grizzle HMPK male at 28 weeks of age! Defenitely not a perfect showfish but I love his strong body in combination with the compact finnage (moderate branching).