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Old May 31st, 2013, 06:37 AM   #1
robertprice
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Default Cichlid Profiles - Flowerhorn

The Flowerhorn is a "frankenstein" fish first developed in captivity in 1993. The original ones, called Five Colors of Fortune, were bred in Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan from Trimacs and Red Devils or Midas Cichlids. Then the Seven Color Firemouth and Blood Parrot cichlid were added to the mix and the first LouHan, or true Flowerhorn was born. Developed in Malayisa and Singapore, the first ones were often referred to as Red Dragons, a name that is obsolete today and indicates an early form of Zhen Zhu. As none of the original females are alive, the closest thing to orginal Flowerhorns are low grade ones bred in the USA. The original ones were easy to confuse with Trimacs.Today there is strong suspicion that other Amphilophine cichlids may be in some of the gene pools, but no one is confirming this. They are highly prized for the males' extremely large nuchal hump or kok, which looks like an ancient Thai warship, and by the Chinese as representing good Feng Shui. Adult Flowernorns cost $150 to $5000 dollars for show quality fish. A Best in Show Winner sold for $300,000 several years ago.

There are 4 basic strains: The Kamfa, a heavily pearled variety with white or yellow eyes faint head flowers with or without dark spots in the rear of the body, Zhen Zhu with red eyes, blue hind body, many head flowers and Trimac ancestral head flower and midbody dark spots and pearling, Golden Monkey with intense red or gold coloration and remnants of its Trimac ancestor's head and dark body spots and Golbase Faders which start out grey, turn black and them loose their dark colors to turn gold or yellow with or without head flowers, and have sunken eyes. The first three have been interbred enough so that the names are often subjective. More recently International Louhan Company crossed Gold Monkey females to Zhen Zhu males and got the very pearly IndoMalau, and the Kamalau strains were developed by the Lams in Malaysia. There is also a solid meallic blue strain, and the very expensive King Kamfa, with a huge kok and the most intense pearling. New strains come around often.

Since their introduction to the USA in 2001, they have become a tropical cult fish, with their own stores and foods. They are very intelligent, perhaps the most intelligent of all fresh water fish, and are good architects, and learn to simple tricks on their own. Pairs have very synchronized nest building behaviors, including cooperative pushing of large objects, and it is thought they communicate well as they often have short face to face conferences. They are famous for their intricate pre-nuptial dancing, and pairs may dance for a month or more every day before nest construction starts. They clean flat rocks on which to lay their 150-300 eggs, and defend the eggs and fry vigilantly. They are diurnal and sleep at night, preferably behind flat rocks.

Even young Flowerhorns are highly aggressive and can only be kept with the tank mates they grew up with. Mature males don't tolerate intruders or hands, consider the entire tank their territory, and will bite viciously. They can draw blood. Males and females need to accept each other or they will fight. They usually lock jaws, and try to break eath other's lower jaw. Most males and females ignore each other except when breeding. They absolutely hate plants as they block their line of sight, and have no recollection of wild plants, and seem happy to rip them apart.

The average maximum size is about 12-14 inches for males and half that for females. Females may have small humps, and usually have pointier snouts. Some King Kamfas get very thick and as big as 18 inches. They don't swim around a lot, and one or a pair can be kept in a 40 gallon breeder or 55 gallon tank. They like very high temperatures, 82-92, and neutral to slightly alkaline water. They are carnivores and like shrimp, salmon flavored pellets, Flowerhorn pellets, cichlid pellets, and usually ignore flakes. Feeder fish should not be fed to them as their Trimac genetics puts them at high rish for Hexamita infection.

There are images of all strains online.
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Last edited by robertprice; May 31st, 2013 at 08:45 AM. Reason: grammar
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