Definition of FlowerHorn

[Toby_H]

I’ve done some research prior to posting this question as well as more this evening… I’ve been looking at pics in doing so… But the biggest problem I’m finding is conflicting information. Which is why I asked if there was a “commonly accepted definition”.

Someone here asked what the definition of an Oscar is… I can’t give it to you off the top of my head nor do I know where to quickly find it online, but every species is ‘described’, which is in fact a very thorough and detailed definition. So yes, we can define what an Oscar is… exactly what an Oscar is...

I’ve read several places where FlowerHorn advocates say that FH should be made a species or a genus… or should at least be viewed similarly... so I thought such a description would be available…

I googled “species description” along with the word fish… this is the first hit I got back… http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/fish/shortnosesturgeon.htm ... making the same search without the word fish takes you to a long list of species and their descriptions … I didn’t expect anything quite this lengthy or well detailed, but both species and genus are defined… as should the term FlowerHorn, as should the individual FH strains… At the end of my research I’m disappointed in the lack of organization in the wonderful world of FlowerHorns…

 

[dominicolas]

You know what a flowerhorn looks like and you know basically what they're made of. If you don't like the definitions your getting, come up with your own.

 

[Toby_H]

Making up definitions or words is what got us into this mess... I'm not making it worse

 

[haloman02]

Ok, look at this way for when one asks what is a dog your average person would say a four legged mammal with fur/hair. But there are different crossbreeds of dogs such as a bulldog a golden retriever both have very different shapes and traits mouth structures and so on. That is why it is hard to tell you what a flowerhorn is. When i tell someone that's a flowerhorn it's like me telling someone thats a dog. Now when I tell someone thats a Red Dragon then it is like saying thats a bulldog.
Hope this helped abit and not confused you more.

But as Fishfreak said above the first flowerhorns where mostly Zhen Zhou ( Blue Dragon's and Red Dragon's ) They both had a Large Nuch ( KoK ) which resembled a Horn and have black markings along the side of the fish and another flower out of place at the start if the nuchal hump. And the only other fish iv seen this trait on is the trimac.

 

[fishfreak317]

all i can add is this. you will not find a "clarification" or "definition" on these fish. why you ask? because they are a man made hybrid and are not found in the wild, and hence has no genus or species. so research till your eyes explode. you cannot compare what you find out on the Oscar as to what you might find on the flowerhorn. because of why? Oscars are classified and found in the wild. so therefor they have a classification and genus and species.

the flowerhorn is ever evolving. classifying into some sort of category would prove a endless description of the breed.

as the flowerhorn community continues to grow, as it has since the beginning. more information might be made or figured out and released.

i myself have tried to absorb all i can in recent years on the flowerhorn, and i myself still do not know everything about them. the lineage is secrete to the public and stored away in the minds of the breeders.

 

[Toby_H]

Thanks guys… I’ve accepted I’m not going to find what I’m looking for… yet I continue to understand the situation more clearly… thanks for your patience…

Ok, look at this way for when one asks what is a dog your average person would say a four legged mammal with fur/hair. But there are different crossbreeds of dogs such as a bulldog a golden retriever both have very different shapes and traits mouth structures and so on. That is why it is hard to tell you what a flowerhorn is. When i tell someone that's a flowerhorn it's like me telling someone thats a dog. Now when I tell someone thats a Red Dragon then it is like saying thats a bulldog.

Hope this helped abit and not confused you more.

I completely follow you here… I agree your “average person” would agree with the description of a “dog” you provided, but there is still a very detailed definition of the canine genus (or whatever it’s called). So when breeders develop a new strain of hybrid dog and they present it to become a species… I have no clue what the whole process entails but I know it does include providing a species description that the strain breeds true to. In the same way I thought it likely that the Flower Horn proponents would have put together some kind of general description of “FlowerHorn” as a genus as well as something comparable to a species description to the different FH strains.

I would consider this the first step in pushing for FH’s to be more openly accepted in both the hobby and the scientific community.

I’m also not criticizing anyone for these descriptions not having been done, I just hoped it was and kept digging even though it didn’t pop up quickly…

the flowerhorn is ever evolving. classifying into some sort of category would prove a endless description of the breed.

If I’m following you guys correctly… we are saying FH is comparable to a Genus and therefore have a description comparable to that of the Amphilophusor the Parachromis descriptions… which are confined enough to exclude most fish but loose enough to describe a handful of species, just like we need the FH description to do… Then they could describe each strain in detail (this ‘should’ only be done after the strain has proven to ‘breed true’). When new strains stabilize and breed true then they can also be described (comparable to a species description), provided the new strain is within the confines of ‘FlowerHorn’ (per the description made that is comparable to the genus description). We can continue to add strains/species of FH without rewrtting or changing anything that’s already in place.

It seems to me like the dog breeders have already carved this nitch out and for FH proponents it’s simply a matter of researching what they did and following in their footsteps. It won’t happen quickly and will be a huge pain… but look how many breeders were passionate enough about their dogs to push it through…