Why such unnatural gravel?

[BIG_ONE]

Hey thanks for your swift reply

If by "bringing out their potential" you mean, that the light reflects back from the gravel onto the fish, and highlights a specific color tone, then i can understand.
But i am bit sceptical, if you are talking about how the fish will grow and be healthy. You can't change genetics, no matter how hard you try

I know you can't change genetic, but flowerhorns can hide genetic themselves. The environment itself is as important as clean water. And the color gravel itself is considered as an environment. If it doesn't suits your fishes liking, it will not show its full potential or releases its full potential to you. Let's say you raised it with pink gravels all its life from a fry until 5", switch it to white gravels and the fish hides its flowerlines(only Kamfa can hide its flowerlines, not positive about KML) and its head shrunk a little w/ not much of an aggressive attitude as it used to be. I've seen this hundreds of times believe it or not. You may not believe in feng shui(I don't either - but there is a limit that is undeniable), but these fishes acts differently to their environment basing in colors and how you and where you place the fish.
Now I'm not saying that this goes to every flowerhorns, but this goes to some of them out there. Your partially correct about the color gravels can reflect and bring out a brighter spectrum of colors. But these fish will also hide their colors, pearls, flowerhorns(hide or washed out), and shrink their head size depending if they like their environment. No offense but its going to be hard to explain and believe unless you have self experienced with it.

 

[HrHagel]

I know you can't change genetic, but flowerhorns can hide genetic themselves. The environment itself is as important as clean water. And the color gravel itself is considered as an environment. If it doesn't suits your fishes liking, it will not show its full potential or releases its full potential to you. Let's say you raised it with pink gravels all its life from a fry until 5", switch it to white gravels and the fish hides its flowerlines(only Kamfa can hide its flowerlines, not positive about KML) and its head shrunk a little w/ not much of an aggressive attitude as it used to be. I've seen this hundreds of times believe it or not. You may not believe in feng shui(I don't either - but there is a limit that is undeniable), but these fishes acts differently to their environment basing in colors and how you and where you place the fish.
Now I'm not saying that this goes to every flowerhorns, but this goes to some of them out there. Your partially correct about the color gravels can reflect and bring out a brighter spectrum of colors. But these fish will also hide their colors, pearls, flowerhorns(hide or washed out), and shrink their head size depending if they like their environment. No offense but its going to be hard to explain and believe unless you have self experienced with it.

Very interesting. And i do believe what you say, since i have no reason not to. Because, like you say, i don't have much experience, if any, with Flowerhorns.
I will however, allow myself to be sceptical until i have experienced it first hand. As it conflicts with my many years of experience keeping natural fish.

I will definatly be doing some experiments in the future, once mine is bigger.

Thanks again

 

[RD.]

And the color gravel itself is considered as an environment.

Yes, that is certainly true, but there is no reason why one has to use tooty fruity colors to achieve the full potential in a FH.
No one here was asking what the results would be if one took a fish that had spent its entire life in a medium/dark environment, and tossed it into a bright environment, as in one with white sand. Of course the fish would get stressed out.


Flowerhorn are no different than any other large aggro cichlid. Very llight colors can wash out certain colors/tones, dark colors can bring out certain colors/tones, and a neutral natural gravel can be used for any/all fish.

Post #7 from the following discussion .....

In SE Asia they also believe that adding coral to ones tank will increase kok growth in the fish, raise their juvenile FH on a diet that I wouldn't give to feeder guppies, and believe that FH will bring its owner prosperity, luck, and good fortune in everything ranging from wealth and fame to love and happiness.

Simply peruse the photos in the link below from the 2008 ACA convention to see how most cichlids appear with a black background (garbage bags?), or for that matter no background at all. No fancy lighting, no red-blue-green gravel, and no tropical Hawaiian backgrounds.

http://www.cichlid.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1717

Mr.Hagel - you will soon discover that there is a whole lot of mumbo jumbo that's posted about how to keep flowerhorns. It's not nearly as mysterious & magical as some would attempt to have you believe.

Just keep yours like you do your other large CA cichlids & you'll be just fine.


HTH

 

[HrHagel]

Yes, that is certainly true, but there is no reason why one has to use tooty fruity colors to achieve the full potential in a FH.
No one here was asking what the results would be if one took a fish that had spent its entire life in a medium/dark environment, and tossed it into a bright environment, as in one with white sand. Of course the fish would get stressed out.


Flowerhorn are no different than any other large aggro cichlid. Very llight colors can wash out certain colors/tones, dark colors can bring out certain colors/tones, and a neutral natural gravel can be used for any/all fish.

Post #7 from the following discussion .....





Mr.Hagel - you will soon discover that there is a whole lot of mumbo jumbo that's posted about how to keep flowerhorns. It's not nearly as mysterious & magical as some would attempt to have you believe.

Just keep yours like you do your other large CA cichlids & you'll be just fine.


HTH

Like in most aspects of life, there is a lot of "mumbo jumbo" you have to cut out of the equation, which is why i still remain sceptical to the subject in hand.
However, i can't blindly refuse to believe something about a culture, that i know nothing about.

Still though, it seems pretty far fetched, and again, conflicts with years of experience with similar fish. (The fish the Flowerhorns were inbred to hell from)

 

[RD.]

Culture?

While darker/brighter backgrounds/substrate can sometimes trigger a morphological change within the chromatophore cells of the fish, none of this is based on the country of which a hybrid fish is developed.

You can read more about how color in a fish can be affected by different factors in the following link.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/aqscisubwebindex/coloration.htm

 

[HrHagel]

Ah, sorry about that. I used the term culture, to describe the whole Flowerhorn scene, which is clearly a way different audience in many aspects and beliefs, compared the natural CA/SA's and so on.

 

[HrHagel]

By the way now that i have everyones attention.

What's the deal with this "Chingmix super duper headbooster"

Bologny?

 

[RD.]

For some of us it's the same culture - fishkeeping.

No need to feed "specialty" FH foods either, just feed the same as you feed your CA's. There is no secret ingredient that causes massive kok growth in FH.

 

[scriving]

I find grand sumo to work better than ching mix but not for head growth its ridiclous to think that a food is going to make your fishes head bigger but if you feed a high prtein diet it may cause the head to grow bigger but their is no secret ingredient for head growth no matter how much hype is put on it i do think grand sumo red has worked well for coloring up my fish though it may have hormones I dont know? I wouldnt fees it as a staple though I feed GSR which is Grand sumo red and Nls new life spectrum and i find it works well for me as for the gravel natrul gravel with a black background makes a flowerhorn look nice Imo no need to throw them in candy land sorry for the spelling and lack of punctuation.

 

[HrHagel]

For some of us it's the same culture - fishkeeping.

No need to feed "specialty" FH foods either, just feed the same as you feed your CA's. There is no secret ingredient that causes massive kok growth in FH.

For me, hybrid owners and natural fish owners are two ends of the spectrum

That's what i thought too..

I find grand sumo to work better than ching mix but not for head growth its ridiclous to think that a food is going to make your fishes head bigger but if you feed a high prtein diet it may cause the head to grow bigger but their is no secret ingredient for head growth no matter how much hype is put on it i do think grand sumo red has worked well for coloring up my fish though it may have hormones I dont know? I wouldnt fees it as a staple though I feed GSR which is Grand sumo red and Nls new life spectrum and i find it works well for me as for the gravel natrul gravel with a black background makes a flowerhorn look nice Imo no need to throw them in candy land sorry for the spelling and lack of punctuation.

Thanks for your input, and i agree with you completely





There are apparently many people who swear by CHINGMIX. But honestly, with all the junk in there, i wouldn't feed it to my feeder goldfish.