Possible long term tankmates for flowerhorn?

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calichai

calichai

Polypterus
MFK Member
Oct 28, 2009
1,059
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socal, oc
Hello Mfk,

Recently I purchased a flowerhorn from a local hobbiest And had him in quarantine the past few weeks. He has been moved into a 60 gal with / 2 female bloodparrot that are roughly half a size larger then him. I'm hoping he ends up liking one of the ladies so I can just keep him as a pair all the time. The parrots team up on him if he chases too much. Has anyone done this with bp long term? So far it's been a few days and everyone's fins are still intact and he's super pumped. He is far from breeding size @2.5 inches, and I been scanning online and most recommend doing a community while they are still small if you wanted to try out some tankmates. i know its not recommended though. Rather then keeping him solo for a period of time I have them together and am keeping a eye on them. The flowerhorn doesn't eat spectrum so the parrots have been getting plenty of food. Any advice, comments, concerns, would be appreciated. Attached Is a photo I just shot after water change a hour ago, excuse the cloudiness.


60gal
XP3
Ac500
Sponge
82degrees


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

ImageUploadedByMonsterAquariaNetwork1370546892.683105.jpg

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should be fine for awhile, just watch your parrots, if they start hiding a lot, then they are probably being bullied. at his size, he is "fairly" harmless, but don't underestimate him. It's more than possible, but fh's typically get very nasty to tank mates. Overstocking with good filtration and lot's of hiding or coverage from plants, driftwood, stones, etc is the best way to go if there's any possibility of getting them to become a "community" fish. There will still be fights no matter what, so the fish you put in need to be sturdy and hold their own.
 
They should be fine as long as they grow up together.

We have a local breeder around here that does it alot.

I stole this pic from his craigslist posting, you can see the huge male in the corner.3I53M13L35Kc5F65Med648cb97e12994e1507.jpg

3I53M13L35Kc5F65Med648cb97e12994e1507.jpg
 
Thanks for the advice you two. Actually one of the parrots is the dominant fish ATM. He is unable to catch the flowerhorn so I will leave them be for now. I'm sure it won't help with kok growth though. Owens, that's a crazy photo of bp and flowerhorn. I don't think u want to have that many in tank, wow.


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686jqx.jpg

With ours the key was adding a school of them. We have 8 parrots and he shows very little signs of aggression. No signs of paring though.

686jqx.jpg
 
Perfect example of adding a decent amount of fish to disperse aggression. Nice tank!

OP, You should add whatever you can as long as you and your filter can handle it.

lowe said:
View attachment 921167

With ours the key was adding a school of them. We have 8 parrots and he shows very little signs of aggression. No signs of paring though.
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