The history of the Flowerhorn cichlid
The Flowerhorn chichlid is a result of hybridisation between different South American chichlids. The Flowerhorn was developed in Malaysia during the second half of the 1990s, and exactly which South American cichlids that was used and in which combinations is still a secret. This secrecy has of caused a lot of speculation and a number of more or less reasonable theories have been put forth. One of the more far-fetched theories suggests that the Flowerhorn cichlid was artificially created in a Malaysian genetics laboratory by combining genes from a Goldfish with genes from the Trimac cichlid (Amhilophous Trimaculatus). A more reasonable suggestion is that the Flowerhorn cichlid is the result of crossing many different types of South American cichlids with each other, and that different forms of Flowerhorn cichlids can steam from different South American cichlids. The most plausible ancestry is crossings between the Trimac cichlid and other South American cichlids such as Midas cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellum), Red Devil cichlid (Amphilophus labiatum) and Redheaded cichlid (Vieja synspila).The look of the Flowerhorn cichlids available in fish stores today is however not just the result of selective breeding. You can affect the appearance of a Flowerhorn cichlid by adjusting environmental factors such as the water chemistry in the aquarium. The food you feed your Flowerhorn cichlid can also change its look. The single most important factor behind the look of the fish is however the genetic makeup formed by selective breeding.
The Flowerhorn has been criticised as an unnatural and dangerous hybrid, produced by money-hungry breeders just to make money. Others have been impressed by the hard work that is evidently behind the creation of the Flowerhorn Cichlid. A lot of the South American cichlids mentioned above will occasionally interbreed in the wild as well, but there is no doubt that the Flowerhorn cichlid has been deliberately produced by breeders. The Flowerhorn cichlids are not the result of random cross breeding. Some people view the Flowerhorn as a purely man-made creation while others compare the hybrid to all the other animal variants that have been refined by humans during centuries of selective breeding.
What to think about when buying a Flowerhorn cichlid
When you look for a suitable Flowerhorn cichlid to buy, you should consider the same facts as you do with any type of cichlid. Make sure that the fish store is well kept and that all the fish look as if they are well cared for. Also check the specific individual that you are interested in. The Flowerhorn cichlid should look healthy and happy. Do not buy a Flowerhorn that seems to be stressed in the aquarium. One good test is to see whether the Flowerhorn eats or not, since poor appetite is a very bad sign in a Flowerhorn cichlid. A Flowerhorn that won’t accept food when offered is probably ill or extremely stressed. When you bring your new Flowerhorn cichlid home, remember to give it plenty of time to adapt before you release it into its new environment.One large question when it comes to buying a Flowerhorn cichlid is if you want to buy a young Flowerhorn or a mature one. The young Flowerhorn cichlids are much cheaper than the mature ones, since it is impossible to tell which colour pattern a young Flowerhorn cichlid will display when it gets older. If you want to keep your Flowerhorn cichlid from the beginning and watch it develop, it will require a much smaller investment. On the other hand, if you buy an adult Flowerhorn cichlid you know what you get. A lot of people believe that Flowerhorn cichlids with certain colour patterns provide great Feng Shui to the house where they are kept. If you want to own a Flowerhorn cichlid with a very special pattern for this purpose, you need to buy an adult one. If you are on a restricted budget you can of course gamble and buy several young specimens, hoping that at least one of them turn out to be a premium specimen with the right colour pattern.
Adult Flowerhorn cichlids with very desirable patterns are extremely costly. High quality Flowerhorn cichlids with markings similar to Chinese letters have been sold for several hundred thousand dollars. There has been a large hype concerning the Flowerhorn cichlids ever since they were developed, and Flowerhorn cichlids have been traded like stocks since their value can increase as the develop. Today the hype seems to have cooled down a bit and a lot of people have lost considerable amounts of money during this process. Premium Flowerhorn cichlids with a well developed hump and desirable markings are however still very expensive.
How to care for a Flowerhorn cichlid
The Flowerhorn cichlid is considered quite easy to take care of and do not require a lot of pampering from its keeper. The first thing you need to do is of course to set up an aquarium suitable for a Flowerhorn cichlid. Your Flowerhorn will require a large aquarium to do well, since this fish grows quite big and have an aggressive temperament. If you use plants to decorate the aquarium, they might be destroyed by the Flowerhorn cichlid, and plants are not necessary in an aquarium set up for a Flowerhorn cichlid. You should however decorate the aquarium in a way that creates natural territorial borders, since the Flowerhorn cichlid is a territorial and aggressive fish. You can of course keep the Flowerhorn cichlid alone, but if you want to have more than one fish in the aquarium other big aggressive cichlids from South America is the best choice. The Flowerhorn cichlid is a tough fish and can tolerate most water conditions, but it will do best in an aquarium where the pH is neutral or slightly basic. A water temperature around 28ยบ C is recommended.The Flowerhorn cichlid is a happy eater and you will not have a hard time trying to make it accept food. Its metabolism and feeding habits are similar to that of the other South American cichlids, and your Flowerhorn cichlid will need a lot of energy and nutrients to stay healthy and develop in a good way. It is actually quite hard to over-feed a Flowerhorn cichlid. Your Flowerhorn cichlid will accept most types of food, and pellets are a good base. This base should be supplemented with plenty of worms, crabs, shrimp, or similar types of meaty foods. Feeding two or tree times a day is optimal.
Since the Flowerhorn cichlid eats a lot, it will also produce a lot of waste products which pollutes the water. Frequent water changes must therefore be performed. Changing 20 percent of the water twice a week is a good rule of thumb. If you can only make one change a week, you should change around 25 percent of the water. You can lower the risk of poor water quality by avoiding food types known to pollute the water a lot.
Luck and Feng Shui
According to an Asian belief system called Feng Shui, good luck and harmony can be caused by Flowerhorn cichlids if they display the right colour markings. The Flowerhorn is not the only fish believed to be capable of this, and fish species such as the Arowana have been kept by Asians for a long time to ensure harmony and happiness. The Arowana is believed to bring luck since it resembles dragons from Chinese mythology. Compared to the dragons in European mythology, the Chinese dragon is associated with much more positive abilities. The Flowerhorn cichlid does not resemble a dragon; instead its hump makes it look somewhat like the Chinese God of Longevity. If the hump of your Flowerhorn cichlid grows large, so will your luck. The good luck brought by Flowerhorn cichlids is believed to affect all areas of life.The markings of the Flowerhorn cichlid are also very important from a Feng Shui point of view. If the marking resemble a desirable Chinese letter, the Flowerhorn cichlid becomes very valuable. A woman who won 1 million dollars at the lottery claimed that she had played on the number displayed on her Flowerhorn cichlid, and circulating stories like this will of course increase the Flowerhorn hype. Some Flowerhorn cichlids display the Chinese sign for “luck” on their bodies, and these individuals are of course extremely rare and extremely expensive.
Breeding Tips
Breeding Tips
The Flowerhorn is a very hardy fish and is relative easy to rear. However, there are also certain techniques and measures to take if you want the best quality out of your fish. No fish can survive in captivation without some control over the environment on the owner's part.
Basic Environmental Control
Water Temperature
The Flowerhorn fish is able to thrive best in water of tropical temperatures, ranging from 24 to 30 degrees Celsius. The optimum temperature would be between 26 and 28 degrees Celsius. It is advised that you maintain the optimum water temperature when keeping a baby or premature fry.
pH Levels
Flowerhorn fish can survive in water with a neutral pH value of 6-8. Similarly, it is advised that the pH is maintained at 6.5-7.2 when keeping premature fish. Changing the water of the tank regularly once a week is a good way to maintain pH stabitlity. If you are unwilling to change the water so often, you can also mix some crushed coral with the gravel. This will help to prevent any drastic fluctuations in pH levels, which will be detrimental to the fish. If you have the right apparatus, it would also help to check the pH of the water regularly.
Change of Water
Overly clear or clean water is also not necessarily the best for the fish, as it is of course difficult to maintain, and more importantly clear water from the tab is treated with chlorine and other minerals which are not too good for the fish. It is therefore advised that when changing the water, it is better not to change all the water, but leave a little bit of "dirty" water in the tank. Changing all the water at once will also cause too drastic a change in the fish's environment, giving stress to the fish to adapt to a new environment all over again. It would also be difficult as changing all the water in the tank would involve getting the Flowerhorn out of water, and being the aggressive and active fish that it is, it would be difficult to simply hold it on a small net for a while. It would probably jump out, or even attack the owner.
Cleaning and Filtration Systems
It is essential to have an efficient filtration system when keeping any fish in a fish tank, or the fish's waste or the fish food will contaminate the water, causing it to be very murky and dirty. The filter should be cleaned regularly. Some people keep sucker fish in the tank together with the other fish because the sucker fish is known to be able to feed on the fish's waste and algae, serving as a good cleaning agent. This is not applicable however when keeping a territorial and aggressive Flowerhorn Fish, as the sucker would probably end up being killed, or even eaten as it is a relatively small fish. It is therefore inevitable that you have to spend time brushing and cleaning the tank frequently if you wish to keep a Flowerhorn. Filtration systems are in no way functional as a substitute for water changing, as too much waste will eventually clog up the filters, and not all waste particles can actually be filtered. They are also unable to filter up the waste and algae that sticks to the sides of the tank, so it is very important that the water is changed and the sides of the tank are cleaned and brushed regularly.
Oxygen Pumps and Water Flow
Oxygen pumps are also essential to the well-being of any fish kept in a tank, as this will replenish the dissolved oxygen in the water. The pumping of air into the water will also cause mild currents and keep the water flowing, preventing uneven distribution of water temperature oxygen concentration. Water must also be flowing in order for the filtration systems to work.
Salt and its Benefits
Salt is good as a stabilizer of sorts. It helps maintain water conditions and keep the fish healthy by acting as a disinfectant and killing some parasites in the water. Also, although the Flowerhorn is a freshwater fish, even freshwater ponds and rivers have a certain concentration of salt, thus adding a little bit of salt in the water also helps to make the fish feel "at home". A "little bit" would mean one or two teaspoons, too much salt will also kill the fish!
Background Pictures or Fake Plants in the Water
This will also help to make the Flowerhorn feel that the environment in the tank is more similar to its natural habitat. Contrary to belief, fake rather than real plants are better for the fish because real plants are hard to maintain without extreme care, and should the plants end up dying, they will contaminate the water. Some people think that plants will actually help to convert carbon dioxide in the water to oxygen. Although the plants may seem helpful in this sense, you need a lot of plants to produce enough oxygen to replace an air pump, and as mentioned above, air pumps are more useful in creating mild water currents. Fake plants and background pictures will also help to decorate the tank and complement the appearance of the fish.
The Flowerhorn fish is able to thrive best in water of tropical temperatures, ranging from 24 to 30 degrees Celsius. The optimum temperature would be between 26 and 28 degrees Celsius. It is advised that you maintain the optimum water temperature when keeping a baby or premature fry.
pH Levels
Flowerhorn fish can survive in water with a neutral pH value of 6-8. Similarly, it is advised that the pH is maintained at 6.5-7.2 when keeping premature fish. Changing the water of the tank regularly once a week is a good way to maintain pH stabitlity. If you are unwilling to change the water so often, you can also mix some crushed coral with the gravel. This will help to prevent any drastic fluctuations in pH levels, which will be detrimental to the fish. If you have the right apparatus, it would also help to check the pH of the water regularly.
Change of Water
Overly clear or clean water is also not necessarily the best for the fish, as it is of course difficult to maintain, and more importantly clear water from the tab is treated with chlorine and other minerals which are not too good for the fish. It is therefore advised that when changing the water, it is better not to change all the water, but leave a little bit of "dirty" water in the tank. Changing all the water at once will also cause too drastic a change in the fish's environment, giving stress to the fish to adapt to a new environment all over again. It would also be difficult as changing all the water in the tank would involve getting the Flowerhorn out of water, and being the aggressive and active fish that it is, it would be difficult to simply hold it on a small net for a while. It would probably jump out, or even attack the owner.Cleaning and Filtration Systems
It is essential to have an efficient filtration system when keeping any fish in a fish tank, or the fish's waste or the fish food will contaminate the water, causing it to be very murky and dirty. The filter should be cleaned regularly. Some people keep sucker fish in the tank together with the other fish because the sucker fish is known to be able to feed on the fish's waste and algae, serving as a good cleaning agent. This is not applicable however when keeping a territorial and aggressive Flowerhorn Fish, as the sucker would probably end up being killed, or even eaten as it is a relatively small fish. It is therefore inevitable that you have to spend time brushing and cleaning the tank frequently if you wish to keep a Flowerhorn. Filtration systems are in no way functional as a substitute for water changing, as too much waste will eventually clog up the filters, and not all waste particles can actually be filtered. They are also unable to filter up the waste and algae that sticks to the sides of the tank, so it is very important that the water is changed and the sides of the tank are cleaned and brushed regularly.Oxygen Pumps and Water Flow
Oxygen pumps are also essential to the well-being of any fish kept in a tank, as this will replenish the dissolved oxygen in the water. The pumping of air into the water will also cause mild currents and keep the water flowing, preventing uneven distribution of water temperature oxygen concentration. Water must also be flowing in order for the filtration systems to work.Salt and its Benefits
Salt is good as a stabilizer of sorts. It helps maintain water conditions and keep the fish healthy by acting as a disinfectant and killing some parasites in the water. Also, although the Flowerhorn is a freshwater fish, even freshwater ponds and rivers have a certain concentration of salt, thus adding a little bit of salt in the water also helps to make the fish feel "at home". A "little bit" would mean one or two teaspoons, too much salt will also kill the fish!
Background Pictures or Fake Plants in the WaterThis will also help to make the Flowerhorn feel that the environment in the tank is more similar to its natural habitat. Contrary to belief, fake rather than real plants are better for the fish because real plants are hard to maintain without extreme care, and should the plants end up dying, they will contaminate the water. Some people think that plants will actually help to convert carbon dioxide in the water to oxygen. Although the plants may seem helpful in this sense, you need a lot of plants to produce enough oxygen to replace an air pump, and as mentioned above, air pumps are more useful in creating mild water currents. Fake plants and background pictures will also help to decorate the tank and complement the appearance of the fish.
Feeding
How often the fish should be fed
The Flowerhorn fish has a voracious appetite. There are no so called "optimum" times when it should be fed, but it is advisable to feed the fish in small amounts spread over a period of time every day.
Live Feed
The Flowerhorn is more carnivorous in nature and prefers meat or live feed. This includes small fish and shrimps. Blood worms and mealworms are exceptionally popular feed sold in Singaporean aquarium shops. Some of these insects are even enhanced with chemicals like colour enhancers to increase their size and nutritional value. Some of them are said to be able to brighten the colours of the fish, increase the size of its nuchal hump etc. It can feed on either fish feed or live feed.
Processed Fish Food
Processed pellet feed that is high in protein is recommended to be used together with other live feed, as they also contain colour enhances and other chemicals that are meant to be perfect for tank fish. It is not advisable to replace live feed with such foods however, as overdose of the different chemicals in the food will be harmful to the fish. A balance between natural live feed and fish food should be maintained.
The Flowerhorn fish has a voracious appetite. There are no so called "optimum" times when it should be fed, but it is advisable to feed the fish in small amounts spread over a period of time every day.Live Feed
The Flowerhorn is more carnivorous in nature and prefers meat or live feed. This includes small fish and shrimps. Blood worms and mealworms are exceptionally popular feed sold in Singaporean aquarium shops. Some of these insects are even enhanced with chemicals like colour enhancers to increase their size and nutritional value. Some of them are said to be able to brighten the colours of the fish, increase the size of its nuchal hump etc. It can feed on either fish feed or live feed.
Processed Fish Food
Processed pellet feed that is high in protein is recommended to be used together with other live feed, as they also contain colour enhances and other chemicals that are meant to be perfect for tank fish. It is not advisable to replace live feed with such foods however, as overdose of the different chemicals in the food will be harmful to the fish. A balance between natural live feed and fish food should be maintained.
Other Tips and Techniques
Keeping Multiple Fish
The Flowerhorn fish is aggressive and territorial in nature, and it is not advisable to keep another fish with it. If you wish to keep two fish in the same tank however, it is a must to partition the tank to prevent the fish from fighting or killing each other. This technique is useful should you intend to breed some baby Flowerhorn. Keeping a male and female Flowerhorn in the same tank separated only by a transparent plastic partition will allow the two fish to be more accustomed with each other, before removing the partition for more intimate contact.
The Flowerhorn fish is aggressive and territorial in nature, and it is not advisable to keep another fish with it. If you wish to keep two fish in the same tank however, it is a must to partition the tank to prevent the fish from fighting or killing each other. This technique is useful should you intend to breed some baby Flowerhorn. Keeping a male and female Flowerhorn in the same tank separated only by a transparent plastic partition will allow the two fish to be more accustomed with each other, before removing the partition for more intimate contact.