flowerhorns? questions

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piff567

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 10, 2009
45
0
36
jackson nj
i am thinking about starting a new project....
i want to get a flowerhorn and i had a couple of questions as i have never kept one before.

i know they have many vibrant colors and black mixed in as i have seen pictures and they grow to get the hump on their heads. just the ones i have seen are younger, and do they need to grow into their color as they are not very colorful, and are they aggressive as i hear they are which is another reason why i am interested. what do they eat such as live, pellet or flake, and do i need any color enhancing food, and what should i set the tank up with as far as deco goes, im probably going to use a 30 gal. long to start them off.

any help is greatly appreciated
thanks​
 
Some will have nice colors and a hump when they are young. Most won't gain their hump until they start getting bigger. You should feed it pellets that they have for flowerhorns such as ChingMix and Grand Sumo. You can also feed them market shrimp. They are really aggresive . In some cases, you can't even have tankmates including plecos but it just depends on the fish. As far as tank set up goes, either bare bottom or gravel. You shouldn't have any sharp decorations. I'd mainly go with pots and other low profile objects
 
thanks
but the ones ive seen for sale at the local store(not petco,walmart etc.) are liek 2" maybe 3" give or take, dont have the vibrant colors i see on other peoples on the site. the man sellin a close family friend andsaid he would give me a good deal on one.

Do they grow into their color?
 
I dont agree with all the people who feed "special Flowerhorn food". Even thought they're hybrids they're still considered cichilds and should be fed just like other cichlids (my opinion). Mine is awesome, I've had him just 9 months and he's grown into an 11" beast. He eats Hikari Bio Gold, shrimp, earthworms, peas, zucchini (they all need greens), bloodworms, mussels...a lot of different kinds of things. I got mine at 3" and his color wasn't the greatest, most don't have a lot of color until 5-6". Yes, they're almost always mean and I only can keep a super fast Texas in with my FH. I also have to wear thick gloves when I change his water and clean his tank lol! He's nails me otherwise, they have teeth and draw blood. But he's super personable and a way cool funny fish. They get big-bigger than an Oscar so I'd get a minimum of a 90 g tank for one if I were you. There's a lot of myths and hearsay about them & some people say you HAVE to do things this way or that way. But you really don't. Give him big weekly water changes and feed him a varied diet and he'll do great.
I adore mine and you wouldn't be sorry if you got one.

T.jpg
 
Oh and as far as color? Here's mine at 3" when I got him, a lot different than his now picture, huh?. Hardly any color at all. So yes-color takes awhile and good water.

T0.jpg
 
okay thanks alot for the help
the i called the guy and he said he could give me it for roughly $25 and its around 3.5" or 4". im assuming it will grow into the nice colors yours have. and the 30 gal is to start him off in cause the local store allows me to trade in the tank for a discounted bigger one.
 
That'd be great if they'd let you trade the tank, that's a good idea on their part. They judge FH's in different ways. How dark and complete the flowerline (the black spots) are, the shape of their fins, a bunch of stuff like that. I didn't know much about all that when I got mine but I did go to a good breeder from Thailand on AquaBid. Mine ended up costing $120.00 after shipping but shipping was $80 of it. I just wanted the pet-like personality of a Flowerhorn. They're like spoiled little kids :-)
 
or if you can wait till they grow up, just buy a young adult

;)

here is mine at 4.5 - 5"

They are like puppies, always bet for food when they see me come close to the tank

I kept mine with a female African cichlid and they get along fine

:D

HPIM2783.jpg
 
thats pretty much what the one the guy was gonna give me looks like.
thanks for all the help
its greatly appreciated
 
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