Thanks! Yeah I did not do any research because I had full intention to have a trop community tank, but then I saw the flowerhorn lol they told me that after a year or 2 the other cichlids would need a separate tank so I was prepared for that but had no knowledge of Flowerhorns until I got him home. Hoping between water changes and rehousing cichlids he will improve. I don’t really care if he ends up being a darker flowerhorn I just want him to be healthy obviously.
Flowerhorn getting dark help!
- Thread starter Patricktheflowerhorn
- Start date
Looking back I should’ve, but I used filter media from a healthy cycled tank and ran it for 48 hours so I figured it would be ok. Lesson learned.
I will do another 50% water change today and check the ammonia again tomorrow. In the mean time I have the 29 gallons cycling. Thanks everyone!
When you do that your suppose to add the fish to keep adding ammonia to the tank to feed the bacteria and keep it going.
The fish store agreed to take back the Kenyi cichlids, so I brought them over yesterday and since then the flowerhorn has improved and his color is starting to come back. Ammonia levels are continuing to decrease and the rest of the parameters are all good. So although ammonia contributed I think it was the other fish stressing him out. His personality is in full bloom now!
Good move and glad to see him doing better already, just keep those ammonia/nitrite levels down and he'll continue to improve. Gonna take some work with water changes (and not just short-term) but it's worth it to see a happy, interactive FH.
Thank you! Yeah I’ll continue daily water changes on him until Ammonia is good. I do weekly water changes on all my tanks normally. That should work for Flowerhorns as well right?
Yes 50% a week should be fine I do 60-70% a week for mine since hes very dirty.
Yes -- if you are doing daily siphoning of poop and not overfeeding -- otherwise in a week a FH is going to produce a LOT of waste and I personally wouldn't want my FH sitting in that (even in a 115 gallon) for a week. Get your self something like this battery powered tank cleaner (you don't have to use the electrical hook up as shown, batteries are safer) -- it only takes about 5 min. for a quick cleaning and it'll make your (and FH's) life much easier. I have one for each of my tanks, not only FH.
