flower horn

Flower horns are a grotesque hybrid of South and Central American Cichlids, originating in East Asia. Compared to wild strain fish, I don't see the appeal. They're ugly, large, mean, and far too expensive.

Flowerhorn's are an absolutely gorgeous cichlid, with lots of color variations. They're a cross breed, no one knows for sure what they're mixed with, but most think it's a trimac and several other South American cichlids. I personally think that each different variation is crossed with a different South American cichlid. They prefer an acidic to neutral ph, but can adjust to any ph like most fish, and are usually very aggressive and should be kept in a large tank, at least a 75 gallon minimum in my opinion, they get to be about 12 inches, either alone or with other aggressive cichlids. But, for the cost of most of them, I would leave them singly in a tank. Plants are useless in a tank with them, like most cichlids. Their diet should consist mainly of pellets as the main staple, and vary it with flakes, shrimp, blood worms, earth worms, crickets, beefheart, etc. Stay away from live feeders though. Feeding fish live feeders can result in them turning down other foods in favor of the feeders, they mess the tank up quicker, and unless you breed your own, they can spread diseases in the tank. This site is pretty good for buying flowerhorns-so I've heard anyway from a few people that have bought fish here. Also has some great photos of some real unique ones. I've also seen some very expensive ones here. The fish with a larger nuchal hump on their forehead tend to get a lot more money. I believe I'd read somewhere awhile back, it's some Oriental belief that it has to do with longevity. http://www.aquabid.com/ Here's a link with some general info and some great photos of them: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile69.html .

The Flower Horn Fish is from the South America Cichlid family and is an aggressive fish that does better in a tank with no other fish. They are very colorful and very unusual in appearance. This is a tropical fish that likes a ph of 7.5 to 8.00.