Couldn't continue blogging about travel because I thought I was pushing myself so hard to write about travel stories so I thought I would go to another topic. I considered writing about the national issues happening in the Philippines since I had been listening to the congressional hearing about the National Peneteniary's Illegal Drugs but there are too much of it on the internet so I will not add about it anymore however this morning, I was feeding our Flowerhorn I thought why not write about the life of a Flowerhorn? I believe that is the best one of the options I have.
Say Hello to our friend and pet, Tik!
Two months ago, my colleague offered us baby flowerhorns which were juveniles of her girlfriend's brother's flower horn pets. It had given lots of babies that they can't take care of each of them so they are selling it at a very low price. First offer was at ten pesos each baby, I immediately asked for five of them. That time, we have not bought a tank yet so we asked them to keep it first and we'll get it once the tank is ready.
It took awhile so the price went up to 25 Philippine Pesos each which was still fine. So then after a few weeks, we finally got our new tank which was of approximately 13 x 6 x 8 inches in size. So hurray! We got new Flowerhorn fishes!
Actually this was not our first time to obtain fish pets. Back in 2010-2013, hubby and I had bought lots of Cichlids as pets. We got a huge tank back in our apartment, it started as a small fish bowl then we eventually transferred everyone of them to a bigger one, filled them with volcano rocks as decorations since Cichlids are not really particular with the design, only they are after spots where they can hide.
However, when I traveled to Dubai and my husband was left in the Philippines, he had to move to a smaller place and couldn't bring the tank with him so we ended up giving it to our friends and some of the fishes to his colleagues. I believe he gave the tank to a close friend.
That is why, at this point, we were both glad that we are back on track and are now taking care of Cichlids again in the form of a Flower horn. The truth is, I was kind of skeptical if we should do this since we always travel and there are lots of times where we are out of the house for a long time specially on weekdays but we still pursued it since we love to have fish pets at home. It is relaxing to see fishes swim from here to there.
Five, they were originally five juveniles and they were all growing together but then I regret not keeping them in different tanks as they grow because unlike the other Cichlids that we had taken cared of before, these ones are really territorial. Two of them were killed when we arrived home from work. We both thought it is best to separate them with a plastic separator and it worked for few weeks. Until one day, the smallest of the tree was found dead, no more eyes, its bones were almost visible and it really looked like something had attacked it. I am not sure which of the two since it was still inside its own place.
Then since there were only two fishes left, they were of the same size, I made bigger spaces for the two of them and still used the same separator which I definitely regret. I guess the separator moves when the filter is splashing out water which causes the fishes to be able to get out of the separator. Hubby and I goes out of the house at nine or ten in the morning and arrives home at around nine to ten in the evening as well. These fishes are left at home without food, although I am giving them early morning and before we go, Flowerhorns are big eaters., they eat a lot and it felt like they don't get full so they are able to finish the food before the end of the day. So it is understandable that they were really hungry causing them to attack anything inside the tank including their siblings. So then the sad day came when one of them was found dead again and the culprit was caught because I saw this sibling taking a bite from the other sibling's poor body. I definitely regret not buying another tank, we could have two Flowerhorns growing at the same time in different tanks. But I have to brush it off and just move on. So now, we only have one survivor and we are calling it... TIK! Yes, Tik is its name but we both don't know why, we just started calling it Tik.
Since I had four casualties because of my lack of knowledge with taking care of these kinds of Cichlids, whilst we had lots of Cichlids before which were not really harmful to each other, the Flowerhorns are different so I had to research and do my part so Tik, the survivor can live healthy.
WHAT ARE FLOWERHORNS
Say Hello to this cute fella!
I always wonder if their heads are heavy.
In JCenter Mall - Images taken during the The Ultimate Flowerhorn Competition
As a background, let me share some information on these types of fishes as there are lots of pet fishes available everywhere. If you guys could recall, I posted a blog and a gallery before, like a few months ago about Flowerhorns which we found in JCenter Mall after attending the MATA Expo. Although it was not my first time to see these types, I was quite amazed with their vibrance and color.
So Flowerhorn Cichlids are ornamental aquarium fish which is noted for their vivid colors and distinctly shaped heads. Their head hump is also the reason of why it is called Flowerhorn. These kinds of fishes were man-made hybrids which are not existing in the wild.
Flowerhorn originated from red devil cichlids (typically Amphilophus labiatus) and trimac cichlids (Amphilophus trimaculatus) and the hybrid blood parrot Cichlid, marking the birth of the Flowerhorn.
BREEDS
There are different varieties of the breeds of Flowerhorns. They are as follows:
1. King Kong Parrots and Red Ingots
2. Golden Monkey
3. Kamfa
4. Zhen Zhu
5. Golden Base (Faders)
6. King Kamfa
7. Kamfamalau
8. Strains
While I am not sure which breed our pet "Tik" at this point, I believe that he must be a Kamfa because of its gray to black fin colors and a light red color on its face and body. When it was still very little, it only has a light red which was almost negligible. I thought it would be a Silk Thai one but after weeks, it started to show spots and now gray to black fin colors.
I strongly believe Tik will grow like this one above.
Base on my research, their color will change as they grow so I am pretty much excited what will the color of the pet we have in the future.
HOW TO TAKE CARE OF FLOWERHORNS
Just like taking care of any pet, there are different ways on taking care of your pets but there are always basic ones which an owner should pay attention to. Flowerhorns are generally highly adaptable and is not very demanding when it comes to techniques of care. However, in this section of the blog, I am sharing the basic ways on taking care of the Flowerhorn fish pet.
1. Temperature and Environment
Since a Flowerhorn is a tropical fish, it can thrive at a temperature between 20-30 degrees celcius. While they are ornamental fish, they still come from a certain kind of wild fish which have been hybrid so they would still need a tank which feels like home.
However on my end, I have not designed our tank just yet. I have been just researching on the best tank designs and of which of course be easy to clean and to manage at the same time. But I will buy some tank background soon which will have a bright vibrant color since base on my research, the Flowerhorn loves to show off its colors when its environment is also bright.
2. Water
Flowerhorns are again highly adaptable but too dirty water would definitely cause damage to the fish which might be a cause of death for the fish. So it is important to change the water of the tank. Changing it once a week would be enough for it to maintain the water balance inside the tank.
Although I am not particular with the pH level of the water, I am always changing it sometimes once a week but there are also time when I change it twice a week specially when the waste of the Flowerhorn had sank to the bottom of it.
An example of the Thai Silk Flowerhorn
3. Filter
When we bought the tank, we made sure to include a filter too. Glad we found an affordable one. There are criteria in buying one:
- Can be easily cleaned
- Its efficiency in mechanical pre-filter
- Biological system that is protected from clogging.
The filter that we bought is just enough for our tank and so I am glad we were able to find one. However, the filter cloth which came with it is not enough so we bought around ten pieces of them and change it every time I also change the water.
I have read an article that states salt will help stabilize the water. I have not added salt in the water though until I bumped into this article so tonight once we get home, I'll add a tablespoon of water to kilp disinfect the water and kill some certain parasites.
4. Feeding
Like other Cichlids, Flowerhorns are big eaters like they will try their best to finish all the pieces of fish feed available in the tank. I am personally feeding our fish and many times I have seen it swallowing all three pieces of large fish feeds altogether and while trying to chew them, it releases everything out. So it will start picking up the feeds again until it is able to chew them all down.
Two to three times a day. That is how I fed it and it is also the most recommended number of times however, a hobbyist is not really constrained on the number of feeding times as long as the fish is still eating it but ensure it is not overfed too!
I bought a fish feed which is specialized for Flowerhorn. As per the nutritional value, it has 43% protein in it. When my husband found it is around 70% protein content, he mentioned we should try feeding it with Azolla. These types of water plant is rich in protein which is why it is also being fed to chickens and other livestock. So we started feeding it with Azolla and Tik loves it! When we are going out of the house towards work, we would always leave it with lots of Azolla and whenever we come back home, Azolla's all gone.
The little green things floating up in the GIF are Azollas.
I have not read anything in the web about fish hobbyist feeding Azolla to their fish so I guess we are the first ones to do so. I believe the fish loves it and it is active and really eats well so probably the Azolla is a good alternative to the fish feed.
Also, there have been notes too that Flowerhorns should also be fed with live feed like worms etc. I am not really into getting worms and feeding it to the fish so I thought I'll skip that part and will keep the Azolla instead and the fish since it is more economical.
We just had the fish in a about a month a few weeks so I am quite excited to see it grow bigger and bigger. I hope to blog more about it in the future specially with its growth updates. For now, let me say hope you had learned about this blog!
Take care!
Copyright 2016 Jean Beltran-Figues
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