flowerhorns

merlin

Hello,


I have some new flowerhorns, I wanted to bup some with my blood parrots and maybe my Oscar does anyone have an opinion or experience with this?

akbr

well i dont have a ton of exp, but i do have a flowerhorn, he used to be in a 55gal but he started to beat everyone up. two Senegal Bichir who were even getting hit pretty hard. then...... he grew teeth lol. mine as well played the jaws music when you watched the tank. had to move him pretty soon after that, he now resides all by himself in a 40gal at my moms house lol. i had a reddevil in the tank with him, well he didnt make it. thats when i moved the big boy, unfortunatly too late. but i think you may find it realy hard to have all them in the same tank. i have read that flowerhorns dont like each other so much once they get older. i didnt know at the time but flowerhorns are not a natural fish, they are man made. they think they combine reddevils, midas and a couple more i dont remember them all. but that was my problem i think is i had two in the same tank. i dont know how big parots get but the flowerhorn is going to get big. the one at my moms is about 11in and only about 8-9in when i gave him to her. i think they can reach about 12in but im not sure. they may be fine with the Os but when he/she gets teeth at about 6-8in you should watch close for agression. if its biting your Os i would get it out fast.good luck.

Lupin

If you intend to keep FH's, keep only one per 55g and no more fish should be placed with them due to extreme belligerence. Blood parrots can grow to 8-10 inches per se. I've kept FH's before and I must say I am not impressed with them. Keeping one pretty much limits your option to other fish.

Welcome to Fishforum.com.

Gump

The standard flower horn is a mix of Amphilophus trimaculatus and Amphilophus citrinellus (Trimac and Midas)

After they hit maturity they should be kept alone in a 75 gallon tank.

merlin

75 gallon for one flowerhorn, would be ideal but silly, thanks for the input, how do you come up with 55 gallon, is 50 gallon OK??? lol These are silly sujetions due to the fact of filtration and water flow, you can get along fine with a 35 long with massive water flow, bio and mechanical filtration and the fact ya'll don't know what I am running on all these factors. I was more interested in the option of putting the flowerhorn with the red Oscar. Probably not a good ideal by the sounds of it and what I have looked up. has anyone tried to mix? And if I take my 150 gallon with a 25 gallon sump, wet dry trickle, 2 fluval 404's 6 - 808 power heads in the tank, would you think it was ok for an Oscar, couple flowerhorns, a few parrots, pleco and bottom feeders? Thats what I am wondering? I am also trying to upgrade my sump to a 100 gallon so I can do a plant tank, similar to a refugium, has anyone done this?

merlin

my blood parrots are about 7 - 9"'s and the Oscar is about 12- 14"'s(hard to mesure) They are over 10years both, but have always been separate.

Gump

75 isn't ideal its a minimum. Flowerhorns should get to 14" with out a problem if you keeping it in a 35 or 55 you are doing harm to the fish and stunting its growth. I've taken them from 2" to 13" in a years time with proper care.

As for your mix I would say it wont work unless you on an off chance get the most timid flowerhorn. Oscars are quite peaceful when compared to Central American cichlids and blood parrots no proper use of there mouth so both species would be easy pickings for a flowerhorn.

merlin

Do you have any pics, I was talking to the breeder and they said that was rare for a flowerhorn to become 13"'s let alone in one year, they actually usually max out at 10 - 12"'s. Once again thanks for your input, I don't think i will be going on with my plan, I will come up with something cool though!

Gump

No I didn't have a digital camera when I i owned them. But seeing as they are a mix of trimacs and midas who both have no problem breaking a foot its really not hard to do with proper care. If you want to stick with a CA cichlid set up and want some suggestions feel free to hit me up.

Gage

just for a correction, no one know what the original flowerhorn was made up of, and was certainly not just a midas and a trimac, al they know was it was made up from anywhere from 6-8 CA cichlids, not just 2 .

if you sign up on the flowerhorn forum they will tell you it is NOT just a midas and trimac.

75 is the bare minimum foot print for a flowerhorn, as with all large cichlids, you should double the filtration.

as for the Bp tankmates, you probably wont get away with just one, you will need several, or the flowerhorn will just kill the Bp.

UNLESS

you pair them, assuming you have a Zz (Zhen Zuo, the most common strain of flowerhorn) you can breed it with a Bp and you will get some neat fry, Kamfa and Bonsai, both are very neat looking.

if you have questions about your flowerhorn and want some really god answers, sign up on flowerhorns.org , they have some of the most knowledgeable people their when it comes to flowerhorns, and they are very good people and do their best to help out, i suggest you ask them for info

im not trying to say you guys dont know your stuff, but people on flowerhorns.org will probably know better.