Thanks, I have intake sponge but very close to the bottom surface.
Something like this then?
Planning to buy a flowerhorn
- Thread starter Ruturaj
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Thanks, I have intake sponge but very close to the bottom surface.
Something like this then?
Interesting, my FH never interacted with the substrate (gravel) when I had it in my tanks. This was several fish over the years, not just one. They all started with gravel. Removing it later in the game seemed to make no difference whatsoever to the fish. Perhaps they were all born & raised in bare tanks in Thailand, not sure? My current midas (almost 8 yrs old) also has never payed any attention to sand or gravel. These fish all flew solo, so perhaps with a female around they would have acted differently with regards to cleaning spawning spots etc, or maybe they are just all oddballs, but by themselves, it seemed to make no difference whatsoever to the fish.
I am not sure about large gravel, might be difficult to siphon ****. Would something like this work
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/category/fish/cichlid-supplies/cichlid-sand-substrates
I only had my first flowerhorn with substrate, he didn't play with it as well. I got him when he was around an inch. Then I went to bare bottom and didn't try substrate with other flowerhorns. I am going to give it a try add may be 5 lbs to see if it changes anythin.
My advice, make sure that it is round & smooth, not sharp, and use it VERY sparingly, in case you change your mind down the road. That will also keep the waste from building up. Just a light scattering, with some bare showing even. Interesting that yours paid no attention to substrate either.
Yeah it's fun watching him make his little "nest" dugout. He likes to rest in it and chill.
Cleaning wise, not much more to do just a little slower... so maybe tack on several more minutes to the time it takes. It's worth it to me because he really enjoys the substrate. It takes longer to fill the buckets and match the water temp during the change than the actual cleaning.
I will start with smaller quanitiy and see if my flowerhorn pays any attention to them. Will update. I am not sure if substrate color would have any effect on his behavior.
Good idea. Just be sure to clean the gravel very well. I just went with natural neutral colored gravel. Too white the FH may try to wash their colors out. Black background.
I used to have a 13" black diamond rhombeus piranha and a 6" ruby red spilo piranha, each with no substrate. Their tanks looked very boring and sterile. Plus they weren't very personable, that's why I went FH after they died.
Piranhas have worst personality in fish. I love flowerhorns, yellow labs, oscars, parrots even goldfish.
