Snake oil foods

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Ruturaj

Ruturaj

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2011
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Seattle, WA
I own a flowerhorn and part of a Facebook groups. I see food at crazy high prices being sold that don't specify anything special or sometimes list secret ingredient. Some claim to have high protein 60% that doesn't link directly to growth.

JDL head platinum 50gm for $18
CZ aqua 100gm for $15-18

I know how the scam works

RD. said:
Here's how the big kok con works. Hobbyist buys into the big hump marketing, the food company is already half way home before the container is even opened. Hobbyist start their little juvenile fish on the big kok food, tank water temps at 84F, often a mirror for training, which in turn can cause a gonadal swing in the fish, that is now getting larger, and more aggressive. Over time the juvenile fish grows, and by golly so does his hump. It must be the awesome big kok food! Hobbyist's posts pics all over the internet proclaiming how great this magical food is for growing big kok - when the reality is any high protein food (50%+) would have produced the same end result, in the same short duration - if the genes were in place. The sad part is that over time, those high protein foods are going to take their toll on the adult FH, a fish that was created from species that are not even considered carnivorous. Just a simple con, designed for the ignorant. In fact, any reasonably decent lower protein food would have produced the exact same results, it may have simply taken a bit longer to get there.

I posted the following back in 2012, and seeing as the large water koks in flowerhorn originate with genes from Amphilophus citrinellus, it seems the most logical explanation.

The Nuchal Hump in Amphilophus

This subject came up recently and while this may be common knowledge to some members I thought that I would share some information from some old research papers that discuss this in fish found within the midas complex. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0016648075901367...
www.monsterfishkeepers.com www.monsterfishkeepers.com


An F1 male Midas from Rapps, in pre-spawn super jacked mode. No specialty FH food required.

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Do you see it for any other species? I am not sure if keeping flowerhorns is the only common thing.
 
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I think it's something around the macho status quo some people associate with their flowerhorn, if there are specific desirable traits to be drawn out (kok and colour here) people will try and make money because they KNOW gullible keepers will spend extra to enhance said desirable traits. That's how I have seen it.

It's something of a status symbol, you want to make it as awesome as possible..
 
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Hendre said:
I think it's something around the macho status quo some people associate with their flowerhorn, if there are specific desirable traits to be drawn out (kok and colour here) people will try and make money because they KNOW gullible keepers will spend extra to enhance said desirable traits. That's how I have seen it.
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Agree. I see few ugly fish (massive kok and very bloated tummy) owners like that.

I love how African cichlids colors are and how arowana look but I don't see this kind of craze for them. Might be a reason that many who can afford this type of food are in US and asian arowana are illegal here. Other reason might be that type of people are more prone to get a flowerhorn than other fish.
 
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Came across this one yesterday and the belly was accepted as normal. Some even commented beautiful fish. I certainly did think it crosses deformity line.

I am seeing more fish like this, just because they have large hump. I guess if someone is that devoted to hump size, certainly they can be scammed

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Im so against balloon, injected, or colored (slime coat stripping) fish. The Glowfish I'm sorta ok with because the fish aren't harmed when making them the color.
 
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DwarfCichlidLvr said:
Im so against balloon, injected, or colored (slime coat stripping) fish. The Glowfish I'm sorta ok with because the fish aren't harmed when making them the color.
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Heart shape parrots are worst. I am not sure what kind of life glowfish live, might be uncomfortable due to not being able to hide.
 
 
Ruturaj said:
The cut the tail off at early age. Worst mutilation I have seen that goes on at this scale.
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AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! Thats awful!
 
Apparently the parrot is a cross between a midas and verija (?).
 
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