Male or female? Flowerhorn

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Parkerboy123

Parkerboy123

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 19, 2018
40
9
8
31
NY
I'm just getting into flowerhorns. I have 2. Unfortunately they don't get along so they're in separate tanks. My favorite one let's me hand feed it and actually pet it, never had a fish with this much personality. Anyhow, I'm not sure how to tell the gender with flowerhorns. It's shaped like a male would be. Squarish muscular body, big kok, vibrant colors, dominant attitude. BUT the vent, it looks like a tube and hangs down pretty far. My other flowerhorn I can't get a picture of the vent an finally gave up. With that one the vent isn't as large and it points backwards rather than straight down like the one I'm asking about. The one I'm asking about, the tip of the vent is black. I hope the pictures help. Thanks in advance.

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It looks like you may want to cut back on the feeding he looks to be overfed. If feeding like that continues he will develop bloat or other disease. I would say to fast for a day or two and then when you return to feeding to only feed until at the end of the day there is a little bulge about half the size of that one.
 
So I did what you said. I faster for 2 days and now I have only been feeding him about 5 or 6 small pellets at the end of the day to him. It's tough because I have a small festae and he gets to the food before the other guy has a chance. But anyway, the bulge slightly got smaller but is still quite big. Is this something that will go away over time? I noticed that the bulge sticks out alot farther on one side of him than the other.
 
By small pellets what size are they in mm? You can also rotate feeding and fast every other day for a week or so and see how his belly turns out. Also how long is he?
 
The pellets are a mix. A mix of hikari gold sinking, hikari gold floating, hikari growth all 3.0-3.4mm. I WAS feeding them freeze dried baby shrimp and freeze dried mealworms. I was also feeding frozen bloodworm gumdrops once a week. I liked feeding the freeze dried food because my flowerhorn let's me hand feed him. But I stopped feeding all except for the pellets when someone mentioned his belly. I don't have a ruler but I'd say my flowerhorn is 3.5-4" and my what I think is a male festae is about 2-2.5". I have another tank with a female GT about 6" and a what I think is a male flowerhorn 3-3.5". These guys only get the pellets and they're very healthy. Sorry to drag this on but my gt has actually been dropping eggs literally once a month.
 
I was really hoping that my flowerhorn was a female because I think my festae is a male as well. And the flowerhorn I have in my other tank has the squarish body shape and a big kok as well so I guess breeding is out of the question. Watching my gt lay eggs so often has been quite a tease lol
 
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