Lighting for flowerhorns

[Hipporhyn]

What lighting do you find your flowerhorns most comfortable with?
I have a 7” flower horn named Hector. I’ve had him 5 weeks now. He is doing great. Has grown more than 1” in length, is thick, strong and robust, is very active and interactive with me and he eats well.
Lately I have noticed that he does not seem to like the aquarium light. In the morning, when there is only ambient light from a window in the room, he will eat right out of my hand. In the PM when I feed him with the aquarium light on (around 715) he is very hesitant to come to the surface. He eats sinking pellets voraciously but will leave floating pellets and not eat them at all. If I turn the aquarium light off and just rely on ambient light from other aquariums and a table lamp, he will eat right out of my hand with gusto, floating or sinking food. Nothing sits longer than a few seconds on the surface or anywhere.
Also, when the aquarium light is off he is usually busy exploring and hunting around his tank. When the aquarium light is on he sits in a corner.
Has anybody experienced this? Any suggesti0ns? I really like the light. It makes the fish’s colour and the aquarium look great. On the other hand I don’t like that it makes Hector skittish.
Perhaps it is a phase nd I should just wait it out?? Perhaps I should keep the light on longer to force him to get used to it?? Perhaps someone can suggest an alternative that has worked for them??
I light his aquarium with a Current Orbit IC Loop LED light. The light turns on gradually and turns off gradually. It is fully on from 330 PM to 745 PM every day.

 

[Aquatic Aggression]

Nice fish and nice light. Current usa makes some great gear.
Have you tried tuning the white / black to get more color intensity and less brigtness? Most fh ive had get spooked by reflections in the glass.

 

[Hipporhyn]

Nice fish and nice light. Current usa makes some great gear.
Have you tried tuning the white / black to get more color intensity and less brigtness? Most fh ive had get spooked by reflections in the glass.

Yes I have. Also, as I think you know, this light has sunrise/sunset setting which I have little to no white light programmed in. It still spooks him. Even just the blue lights at “night” setting bothers him. I also have some small pot lights in the ceiling above the tank. Even those bother him. It seems like any lights directly over the tank bother him.
This aversion to lights above the tank only seems to have arisen in the last week or so. It did not bother him before that. Perhaps it is just a strange (hopefully temporary) Cichlid mood.

 

[islandguy11]

That's rather strange indeed, esp. if they weren't bothering him before. None of my FH has ever done like that, but as you say hopefully it's just a temporary thing, keep us updated.

 

[Hipporhyn]

That's rather strange indeed, esp. if they weren't bothering him before. None of my FH has ever done like that, but as you say hopefully it's just a temporary thing, keep us updated.

Yeah. My big old Amphilophus (Bruce) was a bit skittish with the lights when I first got him but he got over it and settled in nicely. He goes through phases though.....for example, he digs and moves gravel around most of the time but last month there was a 3 week period when he did not touch it. I thought something was wrong with him. Now he’s back to digging....6 to 8” piles and bare spots everywhere.
I am hoping that this Flowerhorn light issue is just a phase. I actually increased his photo period, starting today, in the hope that he will just get used to it.

 

[aria]

I had this issue but I don't know how similar it is to my experience. I had my fish for a good 2 months before he got skittish and started hating the light. I took out his powerhead thinking that was the problem and he started acting normal again. He had intermittent white poops here and there but mostly very normal poops. turns out he's had hith for a while and I'm assuming he just had a stronger immune system so it took longer for it to actually become apparent. pay attention to his feces. Mine would come out and act completely normal when the lights got turned off but if they were on he'd sulk at the bottom and look sad. could be something internal, current of the water/water parameters. best of luck!

 

[Hipporhyn]

I had this issue but I don't know how similar it is to my experience. I had my fish for a good 2 months before he got skittish and started hating the light. I took out his powerhead thinking that was the problem and he started acting normal again. He had intermittent white poops here and there but mostly very normal poops. turns out he's had hith for a while and I'm assuming he just had a stronger immune system so it took longer for it to actually become apparent. pay attention to his feces. Mine would come out and act completely normal when the lights got turned off but if they were on he'd sulk at the bottom and look sad. could be something internal, current of the water/water parameters. best of luck!

Thanks. I will definitely look into that. This was never a problem until a week or 2 ago. Prior to that he had no problem with the lights at all. Very mysterious.

 

[Man-made Monsters]

Did you move a piece of furniture in the room? Did you move anything in the room? I once had a Flowerhorn that started acting really weird when his lights were on. For several months I figured that maybe something neurologically had gone wrong in his head or that he some how was sick. Turned out that I moved a glass coffee table in the room closer to his tank and it created a weird reflection that caused him to hate when his aquarium light was on.