General perception of flowerhorns and owners

Ruturaj

Goliath Tigerfish
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Aug 6, 2011
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Posting it in general section as I wanted to get opinion of all aquarists

What do you think about flowerhorns and their owners?

I had my first flowerhorn 8-9 years ago, I loved how my fish looked (colors, pearls, no hump on that one), the way it grew from an inch to 9-10 inch fish, how it acted when I went close to the tank, basically all cichlid characteristics. I am on different Facebook groups now and I see crazy things.

Enormous sized humps and obsession about those
Crazy advices like 90°F tank temperature, 60% protein food, mineral salts
Crazy prices $400-800 for a fish
buying hyped foods that cost around $20 for 100-200gms, some with fillers, over quality foods like northfin, NLS, or even hikari
Some miscommunication like protein, high temperature causes hump growth

seems like flowerhorns keepers

I have been watching the Netflix show, tiger king, it made me think about how blind a obsessed person can be and how crazy they look (me included)

I understand opinions against hybrids, mine is that as long as I am not harming nature by releasing one in wild, it's fine. But this seems like have gone to another level.

My fish pictures for reference

20200407_131124.jpg

20200407_131112.jpg
 
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Ruturaj

Goliath Tigerfish
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Aug 6, 2011
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Seattle, WA
This were my fish from 9 years ago

One with small hump was my first which I had from when it was 1 inch

One with bigger hump was when I got fixated with large hump size

287104_4437926356660_1775057136_o.jpg

257192_139176539560365_1518210092_o.jpg
 
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fishdance

Redtail Catfish
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Pretty similar to some fancy cat or dog keepers /clubs. Not surprised fish are the same.
 
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fishhead0103666

Alligator Gar
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May 14, 2018
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I love a good hybrid, hell I drive a hybrid, and I love when new hybrids are made. The people that are crazy about flowerhorns remind me of a cult.

The one thing I can not stand about a flowerhorn is the absolutely massive kok some of them get, I just despise them, however koks that are about the size of a golf ball are perfect.
 
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Ogertron3000

Potamotrygon
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Nov 6, 2017
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I used to be against the whole scene as I thought the fish were too unnatural and the owners seemed more about the prestige of paying top dollar for a fish than the animals welfare. The inherited health problems and shortened life span I hear about have never sat well with me.
Now they are more commonly available here and I've seen more i am actually starting to like them a bit. Some of them ,especially the Thai silks look good even if they are totally unnatural.
The owners are a strange bunch and seem far too concerned with what others think about the fish than the fish itself . All the "rate my fish" threads irritate me. I also don't like how they are kept in bare tanks most of the time. The owners as stated take the gimmicky things way too far if you ask me, hopefully they also look after the basics. There's a whole industry built around all these bizarre things that supposedly make the fish better, good luck to the suckers who buy it.
Saying that, I do have a nice big empty tank in my shed, it's unlikely but if I saw the right flowerhorn at the right price who knows? Would be good to try something different and see what all the fuss is about.
 
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Ruturaj

Goliath Tigerfish
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Aug 6, 2011
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Seattle, WA
I love a good hybrid, hell I drive a hybrid, and I love when new hybrids are made. The people that are crazy about flowerhorns remind me of a cult.

The one thing I can not stand about a flowerhorn is the absolutely massive kok some of them get, I just despise them, however koks that are about the size of a golf ball are perfect.
Agree with you on hump size. I saw this red devil on YouTube prime time aquatics channel. Seems like a good enough hump size for any cichlid that grows nuchal hump.

Screenshot_20200314-095546_YouTube.jpg
 

Ruturaj

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2011
1,802
1,634
179
Seattle, WA
Pretty similar to some fancy cat or dog keepers /clubs. Not surprised fish are the same.
Both have a lot of selective inbreeding involved, some defects are deliberate some are unwanted. I am not sure what people would do when genetic modifications becomes public.
 

Ruturaj

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2011
1,802
1,634
179
Seattle, WA
I used to be against the whole scene as I thought the fish were too unnatural and the owners seemed more about the prestige of paying top dollar for a fish than the animals welfare. The inherited health problems and shortened life span I hear about have never sat well with me.
Now they are more commonly available here and I've seen more i am actually starting to like them a bit. Some of them ,especially the Thai silks look good even if they are totally unnatural.
The owners are a strange bunch and seem far too concerned with what others think about the fish than the fish itself . All the "rate my fish" threads irritate me. I also don't like how they are kept in bare tanks most of the time. The owners as stated take the gimmicky things way too far if you ask me, hopefully they also look after the basics. There's a whole industry built around all these bizarre things that supposedly make the fish better, good luck to the suckers who buy it.
Saying that, I do have a nice big empty tank in my shed, it's unlikely but if I saw the right flowerhorn at the right price who knows? Would be good to try something different and see what all the fuss is about.
Yes, thai silk are pretty cool loking fish.

Most owners seems like they left basics far off.

The fuss is pretty simple, you get a aggressive cichlid behavior in a good or strange looking package.
 

Gourami Swami

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Not really my style of fishkeeping or preferences... to each their own I guess. I won't put someone down for liking or keeping Flowerhorns. Real flowerhorns are obviously flowerhorns, where it becomes a problem to me is people breeding hybrids that don't look like flowerhorns (think jaguarxconvict, etc) and them getting out, muddying the bloodlines up. Even if the first breeder is responsible and says what the fish really is, the next owner down the line might not be, and so on, until it's hard to get a pure bred fish.
The other problem I see with the flowerhorn community is that I see many owners think flowerhorns are fine in a very small bare tank. I think the fish should be kept in an adequate sized tank so they can swim around freely and not just bang into the glass all day. And they would probably appreciate some décor. I know it would have to be softer décor so the fish don't hurt themselves on it in a fit of rage... but silk plants and the like would be better to me than a bare glass box. Just my .02, there is debate about this and I'm sure some would disagree with me and say they prefer the bare tank. Doesn't make sense to me though.
 
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