What size can flowerhorns breed????????? I think mine is trying

[PoopSmart]

Mine just dug a pit next to the divider and isn't paying any attention to food, and this flowerhorn is soooo fat it looks like it has dropsy. It LOVES food. It just keeps digging its trench and the male just watches it through the divider.

Also the breeding tube is fat and sticking out. They are only like 2 inches!!!!!! maybe 2.5 if you include tail, but they are itty bitty. Should I remove the divider later and see what happens? or just keep it as is?


I don't think they can breed at this size but I don't know i mean maybe its possible.

 

[ayobreezie]

Well, on FHUSA, there was someone's fry who paired up and started breeding, but they ended up eating all the fry... haha.

 

[aquatic_wonders]

that's weird but keep us posted.

 

[hbluehunter]

They sound a little small but hey it's worth a shot. They might screw it up a couple of times. mine did, but they got it right on like the 3rd batch of eggs.

 

[Davey_8313]

They can breed through the divider if you have it set up right. They could try to breed at that size, but usually the eggs will just get ate until they're a little more mature...

 

[PoopSmart]

aw man, the breeding tube is sticking out soooo far on the female. I have rocks set up next to the egg crate, and if she lays eggs then i will watch for this behavior the next couple of weeks and try again by letting the divider go, but I don't want to risk the male just killing the female straight up this early before they even fully mature. I will check back again later before I go to bed tonight and update you tomorrow in between my halo 3 action.

 

[Davey_8313]

Well, if the rocks are right next to the egg crate, then the male might be able to fertilize the eggs through it. Put a powerhead or something on the side of the male w/ it pointed towards the other side... G/L with the breeding though, I hope they do it for you, lol

 

[PoopSmart]

aw man I got so impatient and blew it. I put the male on the female side. I figured that maybe i would watch them for about 5 minutes and take notes of any breeding behavior.

It looked ok for about like 20-30 seconds. They were swimming in a circle and touching sides and swimming nxt to each other and I was thinking maybe I will be lucky and they will breed right in front of my face. Then I was waiting for the lip lock to see the male test the female and vice versa. Well the lip lock lasted about a minute and it was pretty still. Then they kept fighting and it turned into a brawl. I saw a couple scratches on the female and I just netted the male out. but I found it strange that the male had a little bruise sort of on its bottom lip because the female kept getting the best lip lock.

now they are seperated and I don't think I will ever get them to coexist without some crazy amount of dithers or soimething. They just wanted each others blood.

I will let them heal up before I try something stupid like this again. I didn't let them keep fighting though, they really had 2 lip locks before I said ok thats enough. I didn;t want anything to happen eitehr so I figured I might as well just play it safe.

sucks, I wanted them to breed.

 

[ayobreezie]

Haha, don't worry.. they're still young.. but usually females are more aggressive anyway.. haha.. but yeah, man, you got'a get me some pictures of 3 - 4 inchers from Beldt's.. if I think they're worth the drive, I'm gonna go get a female this week or weekend.

 

[Loc fish]

My fish had fry at 6 inch