Joined: Dec 09, 2008 Posts: 665 Location: Mumbai Dahisar (w)
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 4:43 pm Post subject: Re: what all to keep in mind before buying a FH?
Congrats on your purchase.
Get the mollies shifted or they will get killed. Hope that they are disease free. If yes, siphon out their wastes and top up the water. dd salt and dechlorinator and wait for 10 minutes before letting the FH in. Meanwhile, suspend the juvie in a bag in the water to acclimate him. You can house your juvie in that tank ( it's roughly 14 gallons ) for a few months. But eventually, you must transfer him to a larger tank ( 50 gallons minimum ) with greater height so that its growth isn't hampered and hie gets some swimming space. Having a tank height of atlest 18 inches will be good both for display and vertical movement of the fish.
Once the juvie stabilizes, post few pics and vids.
Joined: Aug 15, 2011 Posts: 746 Location: Mysore,Karnataka
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:51 pm Post subject: Re: what all to keep in mind before buying a FH?
Thanks a lot all of u guys
Actually this FH my girl gifted me, so she doesnt know much about it, she got it cuz it has a beautiful red eye! it surely does..but poor guy/girl his tail has been cut!
will soon get another Juvi FH ....
here are the pics of him/her:
it may not be the best FH here,but it very active already, and is jumpin around in the tank :D
what can i feed this guy?
do i have to really go for expensive food like HUMPY HEAD,or VIKING, or GRANDSUMO etc etc.? or is there an alternative?
the photo of late arogorn
what is the growth rate of the FH (inches per month) if i provide regular good food,with regular water changes?
Joined: Dec 09, 2008 Posts: 665 Location: Mumbai Dahisar (w)
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:12 am Post subject: Re: what all to keep in mind before buying a FH?
That's a cute little fish. You must be proud father.
Going by the grading of fry, which is based on the flowerline alone, It is a Grade 'C' or Freeflower type of fry. I had one just like yours three years back. She was a Blue Dragon Zhenzhou who started laying eggs in the third month and continued to do so about twice every month. She was with me for over two years after which, I sold her to Discusrama at over 10 inches.
Prima facie, your cute little friend is either a Zhenzhou ( greater possibility of being a Blue Dragon ) or a Zhenzhoumalau ( I can spot a scanty amount of pearls ). These are just my guesses based on the features that I can make out from your wonderful snaps. At this stage, nothing can be said for certain.
I see a scaphoid abdomen, which is an indicator that this little guy has been starved or underfed by the LFS guy. Its up to you to fatten him up.
Sure his tail has been cut, but not completely. So it will grow back in the next few weeks.
Inspite of the severed tail, the fish looks proud and majestic with erect finnage.
The red eye is not unique. It is comman in most flowerhorn strains except earlier Kamfa variants.
As I mentioned earlier, there appears to be scanty pearling. This will either disappear completely ( more likely ) or will persist and spread with age, depending on the genes.
There is a slight hint of the reds appearing on the belly.
The bodyform shows zhenzhou predominance.
If it carries the fader gene, the colour will darken up initially and later fade out in the next couple of months.
There is no absolute necessity for expensive food, as long as you are feeding him a well balanced food intended for carnivorous fish along with some fibre rich feed. Most of the fish's traits are dependent on his genes. By providing specific feed, we only accelerate the appearance and slightly enhance the intensity and distribution of the particular trait. It is like providing coaching classes to our kids to boost their performance and give them an edge. But a poor kid with high intellect attending night school and no private coaching can still top the merit lists.
Among the flowerhorn specific/premium feed the reason we go for branded feed is that we can rest assured that our fish are getting complete nutrition. Plus you can choose the food depending on the specific trait that you need to enhance. There is also greater variety of pigments in these so that the yellows, blues and greens are not left out.
There are many cheap but good local brands available in the market. You may go for a time tested one. But if you are looking for a good colour feed, the local market will provide you with only red colour enhancers.
Also, if you have a fish farm or government fishery research centre around your place, you can get well balanced cichlid food at wholesale or subsidized rate ( amounting to Rs.xx per kg in sacks of 5/10/15/25 kg ). the only drawback is that the water may become cloudy more often.
If you provide good water conditions and a nutrient rich diet, the growth rate of a juvie flowerhorn is 1 to 1.5 inches per month till it reaches between 8 to 10 inches ( which I refer to as the 'Growth Phase' ), after which, the growth in length decelerates and the increase in girth and depth accelerates, the fish appears more stocky, gets an apparent triple chin, full cheeks, thicker jawset and the kok development gets a boost. In short, the fish starts ballooning up after the end of the initial growth phase ( Hence, I refer to it as the 'Ballooning Phase' ).
Joined: Aug 15, 2011 Posts: 746 Location: Mysore,Karnataka
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 8:51 am Post subject: Re: what all to keep in mind before buying a FH?
OMG!
thanksa lot kastor
The guy seems to be little stressed out for now, is not eating anything so far.. (not shrimps,cichlid pellets,worms ,anything)
and as far as the color is concerned.. .he is more dark and there is alot more RED (blood like) on his belly area.
the picture does not show much of the colors and pearls cuz i took as soon as i left in the tank and it was kinda stressed..when i switch of the lights, its more darker and nice
HOpe he turns out to be a wonderful and color ful FH with a medium sized KOK :D
can i feed beef heart for the fish? with variety of food from shrimps,pellets,worms, live feed etc..
lets see, i dont think there is any fish research centre here in mysore, ill just search in the internet and find more info about it.
Thanks a lot for all the info , that really educated me a lot about FH's
Joined: Dec 09, 2008 Posts: 665 Location: Mumbai Dahisar (w)
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 12:33 pm Post subject: Re: what all to keep in mind before buying a FH?
Don't feed mammalian meat needlessly.
Don't livefeed newdlessly.
A well balanced cichlid pellet is self sufficient in itself for your fish.
If you want, you can feed him peeled, eviscerated and thoroughly cleaned shrimp / prawns ( you may partially boil these, cut them into bite sized pieces and freeze them in a ziplock pouch and feed the fish on weekends.) or cleaned earthworms on weekends.
You say that the fish doesn;t eat anything. Might be because of stress, but flowerhorns are voracious and shameless eaters. It shouldnot go without food for long. If it does, check whether it is pooping out a white thready/stringy excreta. If yes, it might have enteric infection / infestation. As I said earlier, the scaphoid abdomen shouldn't be ignored.
Joined: Aug 15, 2011 Posts: 746 Location: Mysore,Karnataka
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 4:20 pm Post subject: Re: what all to keep in mind before buying a FH?
Kastor,
My FH ate
i fed some Blood Worms for it. It ate and kinda spit out half of it :/
Ill try the shrimp.
No infection so far i guess. it has pooped and no white excreta. :)
Joined: Dec 09, 2008 Posts: 665 Location: Mumbai Dahisar (w)
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 12:17 am Post subject: Re: what all to keep in mind before buying a FH?
Good for you bro.
Clean the bloodworms thoroughly before feeding. These little larvae come with chunks of humus, rich in parasites.
Siphon out all the excrement and other waste at the end of the day.
Joined: Aug 15, 2011 Posts: 746 Location: Mysore,Karnataka
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Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:32 am Post subject: Re: what all to keep in mind before buying a FH?
Deepak ,
The blood worms i fed my FH were freeze dried type, not the Live ones.
A few questions i have..
1. can i keep two Juvi FH's(around 1.5 inches) in my 3ft tank with a middle partition? if i keep them, will there be any effect on their growth? keeping in mind that i will be surely upgrading the tanks as they grow, and maybe even keep them in different tanks.
2. If i keep two FH's in the same tank with a partition, is it necesarry to put an airstone to both partitions or one airstone is enough? Since the same water is being used by both fishes.
Joined: Dec 09, 2008 Posts: 665 Location: Mumbai Dahisar (w)
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 3:24 am Post subject: Re: what all to keep in mind before buying a FH?
That's a lot of questions. More exercise for my finger musculature.
Bloodworms are larvae, just like mosquito larvae. So there's no culturing them.
If your flowerhorn isn't accepting pellets, do the following:
- Buy some premium carnivore pellets or sticks. If azoo flowerhorn pellet or arowana stick 10g sachet is available, get it. Or go for any other branded product like hikari/ocean free/grand sumo, etc. These have less fillers and more amount of proteinaceous content. These have greater palatability and so are highly recommended.
- Wet a single pellet/stick or a broken piece of it for about 2-5 minutes, before feeding it to your fish. By moistening, the pellet softens, which is easy to bite and is more palatable.
- Let the flowerhorn spot it/taste it/ eat it/ spit it. Be patient. Wait and observe. Many flowerhorns have a habit of spitting out food and eating it off the bottom later. If the pellet gets eaten, feed more in the same manner one by one. If he spits it out, check from time to time whether he has eaten it. Feed no more until he eats it. If he hasn't eaten it by the end of the day, siphon it out and let the fish starve for the night.
- Repeat the above procedure the next day. you can do this for 4-5 days at a stretch. If he remains adamant till the 6th day, feed him the bloodworms or any feed that he readily accepts. Do so for the next couple of days. then again repeat the 4-5 day starving regimen.
- Usually flowerhorns don't wait that long. They usually crack within the first 3 days.
Siphonig out the excess wastes from the bottom and toppng up ( replacing ) the water ( therefore technically, not WC but WR or water replacement ) is a good practice and benefits in the log run. It doesn't take up more than 5-10 minutes of your time every night or whenever possible. I highly recommend it. And what better tank to do this than a barebottom?
I have grown out flowerhorns in partitioned 2 footers earlier ( 3 juvies per two footer ). They had excellent growth and development and were a healthy lot. All of them developed koks including the females. The extras among those were later gifted to friends at 6 inches or so. My current flowerhorns, ADOLF and RUDOLPH are being grown out in a 50 Gallon partitioned 3 footer. You can see their growth in their respective threads. Only one of them will get to keep the entire tank eventually though. So the the answer to your partitioning querry is YES.
Use a mesh for partitioning rather than glass/acrylic. Having a free flow of water between the two sides has many benefits.
- Though it acts as a physical barrier for the fish, it doesnot hamper the flow of nutrients and wastes. Thus, by chemical parameters, both fish get to utilize the entire volume of water rather than only half of it.
- You need only one aerator and only one filter.
- Siphoning out wastes and topping up the water also neednot be done separately.
- The fish get to room in better with each other.
* use the greatest mesh size according to the size of your fish. I keep two to three partitions ready with different mesh sizes ( 8 mm, 15 mm and 1 inch ). As my fish grow, I replace the partitions in increasing order of mesh size. Greater is the mesh size, less hampered is the flow of water through it and thus, better is the filtration.
FH are kept both in barebottoms and substrated tanks. I prefer a barebottom since it makes siphoning easier, is easier to maintain and hosts no sites for colonization by pathogens.
It you are planning to dd substrte and other decor, keep the following in mind
- don't use sharp chips/decor.
- know that flowerhorns dig a lot.
- there have been a few threads posted by members of Flowerhornusa.com wherein the fish ingested a piece of gravel causing intestinal obstruction leading to herniation, prolapse and death. You may browse these to note their experiences. I remember one thread posted in round July 2008 wherein the hobbyist manually removed the stone by taking an incision on the constriction ring of the prolapsed anus. He posted photographs of the entire procedure. The fish survived then, but for how long, I know not.
Joined: Aug 15, 2011 Posts: 746 Location: Mysore,Karnataka
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 9:52 pm Post subject: Re: what all to keep in mind before buying a FH?
aand, thanks a ton kastor! :)
keeping your advice in mind, i m using the tank, barebottom itself,
so far for the food...
im gonna try the starvation technique. lets see what works out.
I am using Ocean free Pellets(medium size) .
3 juvies per 2 footer? more than on FH in the same partition is permitted? favourable?juvi's living together?
im getting a Golden Trimac baby in a couple of days. so im making room for itnow.
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