General Care ·Jan 26, 2021

General Care: Flowerhorn Keeping

Flowerhorns keeping

Decor:

No gravel is easiest way to keep the floor clean, though the fish do like a bit of digging so if you want to keep sand or gravel then have a thin layer no deeper than 2cm, stir it regularly when the fish piles the sand and make sure you level it out again, because deep sand piled up (usually in the corners) will get putrid organic build up and ruin your water quality.
No wood or sharp objects in tank.
Medium blue background will help fish to display more colour and good lighting either full spectrum or growlux type lamps which have a little extra on the red spectrum side will help show pearl and red colours more vividly.

Water changes:

Depends on stocking density and size of tank, but smaller regular water changes is best, if you have just one or a couple fish, vac the bottom of tank a couple times a week with a 10 to 15% water change and will help keep the tank clean and water stable.

Water temp and Ph:

Temp 27 to 30C, main thing is keep it stable, 23C and lower the fish get weaken immunity and become very prone to diseases and infections. PH between 7.0 to 8.3 is good range, they prefer alkaline over acidic water,
However stability is more important than a specific ph level, so try to maintain ph with whatever your water source is, don't use chemical buffers because you will create ph swings and upset the fish. If your water is soft add a litre or 2 of crushed coral to your canister filter.

Food:

I use Hikari sinking gold, Hikari koi spirulina, hikari blood red and sometimes grand sumo, Cz Monster Kok, Ocean Free FG-G1, Red Freaks pellet and sometimes NLS, I find the fish maintain colour and kok with these foods.
There are other good brands, but Ive tried many foods over the years and these I mention have given me the best results, many others I tried the fish lost kok and colour.
Feeding too much high protein pellets to adults can lead to gut problems, so you may want to consider adding some veggie or low protein koi type pellets to the diet for adult fish, I still don't know the perfect answer for food, I recommend that you do research, just stay away from cheap no brand pellets.
They are usually not good for flowerhorns, they wont colour up properly on them. I also found that many of the foods with specific marketing for "flowerhorn" were generally overrated, with the exemption of those fish brand i mention, which I found my fish did really well on it.

Feeding frequency:

As a rough guide I normally feed young fish 1cm to 6cm at least 3 to 6 times a day.
Sizes 6cm to 15cm get fed 2 to 4 times every day,
sizes 15cm to 20cm once 1 to 3 times every day.
Mature adult fish should not be fed more than once a day and I only feed mine 4 times a week - with the exemption of conditioning for breeding where you need to pump them with at least couple good meals a day and the fish that are in my breeding programs get fed once a day at least even if no immediate plan to breed.

Tankmates:

Flowerhorns are best on their own, though plecos are handy to keep the glass clean. If you introduce a pleco first before the flowerhorn or introduce pleco at night time when the fish is sleeping its got a better chance to be accepted.
I personally don’t use pleco’s as I have had Flowerhorns die from trying to eat them but if you do like them Use a pleco like gibbi etc, rather than a bristlenose cause the plecos are tougher, make sure you provide a few good hiding places and that there isnt a big size difference between the pleco and the flowerhorn.
Big fh can kill small plecos, and big plecos can kill flowerhorns, if the pleco gets too big and aggressive then trade it for a smaller one. Make sure you quarantine the pleco first, and make sure its not carrying any parasites, as they are known to.

Tanks size:

Ideally a 4x2x2 foot for one adult flowerhorn is a perfect display size, you can divide it and comfortably keep 2 adults, the minimum space I recommend for adult male is 2x2 feet of floor space. But this does depend on your Flowerhorn I found short bases are happy in a 4x2x1.

Common diseases and cures:

Hexamita - fish stops eating, white stringy pooh. Medicine (Metroniidazola)
Worms - fish can stop eating, skinny/emaciated, stringy pooh, Medicine (Levamisole) and (Metroniidazola)
Bacterial infections, Pop Eye - Eye milky, inflamed / popping out Oxytetracycline powder or Tetracycline tablets is usually effective.
Whitespot: You can cure without meds, just increase temp to 31C and use airstones to increase aeration, if you want medication I found tetra lifeguard to be very good.