The Developement of The Flowerhorn
Flowerhorns began in the South East Asian country of Malaysia. The Malaysians were attempting to recreate the proprietary hobby fish of Taiwan, the Blood Parrot. Though unsuccessful in their attempts to re-create the blood parrot (mostly due to the unavailability of Synspilums with the needed gene) they did create the first ever 'Flowerhorn'.
The very first strains and breeds of flowerhorns were very different from today's version. Most were not very colorful and only a handful had very large nuchal humps. As they were developed further, some very desirable and interesting traits developed. Meng Aquarium in Malaysia developed some of the most famous fish during this period. They called this line of breeding the 'Fuakok' strain. Generally this series of fish are considered the forefathers of the modern day Flowerhorn.
Meng Aquarium fish:
'Coronation Link'
'Tornado Effect'
'Perfect Harmony'
Flowerhorn popularity in Asia was beginning to grow exponentially as flowerhorns grew more and more attractive. They resonated particlularly with Asian hobbyists because their features and traits represented desired feng shui and other Asian cultural phenomenon. Such as, red being representative of wealth and power as well as the nuchal hump resembling a chinese deity of wealth, etc.
Right around 2002-2003 the Flowerhorn was declared the official feng shui fish (replacing the asian arowana). Flowerhorn popularity had never been higher in Asia. Stores were selling 1-2" fry for 10 times the amount they had been previously. More and more breeders uninterested in the developement of the flowerhorn and very interested in making money began flooding the market place with very low quality flowerhorn fry. These fish would have been culled by a responsible flowerhorn farm, but because they were worth so much no matter how they looked they were sold to dispassionate hobbyists who knew little about the breed or their origins, caught up in the hype of the craze.
In 2003-04 The Asian flowerhorn bubble finally burst. Many aquarium shops and breeders went out of business and never returned to the hobby. Thousands of disillusioned hobbyists, upset that their expensive fish ended up very ugly when full grown despite the promises of the breeder or store began throwing their unwanted fish in rivers and local waterways. Perhaps this was the greatest tragedy of all.
While Malaysia was arguably the most effected by the crash, the hobby continued to live on (though much more low key) in other SE Asian countries. Supported by select dedicated and passionate breeders from Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, a handful still remained in Malaysia. They continued to develope and create new flowerhorn strains that are directly related to the flowerhorn we see today.
Currently Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam export flowerhorn to the US. The Phillipines have many excellent breeders and farms and hopefully they will begin exporting very soon as well. Each country currently has something of a signature fish that they are known for developing.
Malaysia:
Golden Monkey
Thailand: SRT, ThaiMalau:
Indonesia: Kamfa, IndoMalau
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Vietnam: King Kamfa, Tan King
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Above is representative of the current state of flowerhorn in each of the mentioned countries. Developement is constant and ongoing today in all of them. Because there are so many different strains of Flowerhorns, breeders will rarely use a pure strain fish in their developments. Instead they commonly use line breeding and outcrossings with other strains of flowerhorns attempting to create a fish with the best traits of the above fish while simultaneously minimizing the defects in the above.
*NOTE*
This is not a complete history on the developement in flowerhorn. There have been some pieces, particularly right before and after the craze started, in which strains of fish were developed that I haven't covered in the interest of time. Hopefully some experts can chime in and correct any mistakes I made as well as add to this. I know they visit this forum from time to time as well!
