*Grooming Flowerhorn

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Ive also tested my theories on a pure male vieja synspilum with success! Within a week he was displaying colors i have not seen and his nuchal started to show for the first time ever. This was my first attempt ever trying to groom a pure species. This is actually a pucture of him before grooming. Ill try to track down the video after grooming only a few days

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See for me. Females actually have caused many of my males koks to shrink! But i have noticed alot of variables come into play while grooming. Obviously genetics is the absolute most important factor. While finding food has almost 0 to do with it at all. Over the years ive used top of the line foods mainly for nutritional value but to cut down costs and so the food would last longer I started buying cheaper food "with alot of fillers" just for those I import and groom until i let them go of normally withing 2-3 weeks. I dont believe in using parrots... i think using parrots is a bit cruel.

Yes, as per the paper as well midas hump shrunk after pair formation. I don't buy in bulk but buying 2.2kg NLS for 65 doesn't sound bad compared to prices I see of foods with fillers (my experience is very limited though, just online and LFS prices). I do consider use of Parrots as punching bag to be cruel as well. Some end up dead if left for long.
 
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Back to what i was saying about how it depends on the specific flowerhorn obviously what type of flowerhorn and genetic make up play a huge role. For one you have whats called both Hard kok and soft kok especially with kamfa. Then you have srd and other zz that have a much better kok gene that require no grooming at all. I think mirror and higher temperature "84-86f" are what makes the most difference in a short ammount of time.

I avoid high temperature and prefer to keep it low at 80°F. It's affect the life span and I would rather have a smaller hump and longer life span. I bough kamfa for shape and colors. I tried 86 for 2 weeks, didn't notice any difference for my fish.
 
I avoid high temperature and prefer to keep it low at 80°F. It's affect the life span and I would rather have a smaller hump and longer life span. I bough kamfa for shape and colors. I tried 86 for 2 weeks, didn't notice any difference for my fish.
The high temperature im talking about is only tor be used for a few days to a week at most. And only while grooming before an event like competition. If you look at the main species used to make kamfa you will see that that water even in their natural habitat often exceeds these temperatures especially those caught in more shallow pools.
 
The high temperature im talking about is only tor be used for a few days to a week at most. And only while grooming before an event like competition. If you look at the main species used to make kamfa you will see that that water even in their natural habitat often exceeds these temperatures especially those caught in more shallow pools.

I guess most of the people like me or who buy from you would not take their fish to competiton. Still few days to a week isn't bad, I kept mine on 86 because of ich which went away in days but kept tank temperature high to be sure for few more days. 84-86°F in on higher end, on Facebook some even said they keep their fish at 88-90°F.

I assume in nature they would also get temperature swings as it would drop at night too. The average suggested temperature range for two species (red devil and midas) is 70-79 and for other two (trimac and vieja synspila) is 74/76-86 based on seriously fish and I tried choosing all fish in aqadvisor and it gave me 77-80.6 as temperature range. I don't think up to 82 is any issue for everyday or 86 for a week.
 
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