I have two flowerhorns, both Zhen Zhou, i recently put them in a 75 gallon tank with a divider, as soon as they confronted they began to go crazy and lock lips (through the divider) i'm also not sure if they're even a male and female. can someone help me out with that?
here are some pictures







The one on the left was purchased as a male and is a bit younger than the suspected female. One on the right was purchased with no real knowledge and then later I was told by someone who is experienced with flowerhorns as a female however shes dug pits but never laid eggs and when their tubes were down it appeard to be in a V shape. The others looked relatively similar except a bit more rounded.

Thanks in advance.

the difference in tube size should be greatly bigger with these two being so close in size. If she is female and you want to breed her i would suggest another male larger and nicer than him. she could kill him if you leave them unattended for periods of time. he is to small for her. good luck and i hope this helps. the female tube will be huge when it fully drops. maybe read on flowerhorn breeding behaviors might help you learn a lil more about how a male and female behave together.. again good luck to you with these two..

I think they are both male. If it turns out that one is male and the other is female, I still don't recommend breeding them as females get very aggressive when breeding, so male to female body size ratio must be 2:1.

I agree that the FH in the left is a ZZ, but I think that the one on the right is a Kamfa or Kamfa-derived FH. I can see a beautiful fan tail on the second picture. Of course, I may be wrong.

The right FH has awesome double flowerline and crazy face markings, too. Cool!

Nice flowerhorns! Don't remove the separator though, they are too close in size and can inflict major damage to each other. Keep them separated and with some time you can find out for sure which one is male and female.

now that i look at the pic i agree the one on the right has kamfa blood. My guess

You should change your divider into plexi glass or acrylic, dont use light panel as they are sharp could cut your fish face or lips.

ahhh so that's why their lips are cut up! thanks for that. but anyways the one on the right actually got into the other side of the divider from underneath overnight and i saw them in the morning both with nipped fins, but ironically get along fine now (i removed the divider) i suppose now i should just wait and see if one lays eggs? cuz i also think they might both be males they both have a little kok, do females get them? sorry i have more expertise in African cichlids.

Before, someone in this site had two males getting along (The owner thought one must be female). But this, I do not recommend. Sooner or later, they will fight. Even a male and a female of breeding proportions can appear to be peaceful at a time, then fight at another.

I suggest you separate them properly. Fertile females can actually lay eggs even if they are separated from the male via a divider (It happened to me), so you better test them out first.

Females are not known to develop KOKs as huge as males, but in some cases, they do have small KOKs, and such females are valuable for breeding.

About two days after I made this thread I came home and found the female on the male side, she had slipped under. Both were pretty badly beaten up but the female looked worse. They were getting along ok so I left them. For about a week or so they seemed to get along alright but after noticing that the male did not want to let the female eat and chased her around fiercely I separated them again. Another week passed with them separated so today I decided to remove the divider, here is the result:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7IjRYUiN1g

They didn't seem to get along great so I put the divider back in. As soon as I did the female started digging by the divider and they both show interest in whats on the other side.

What do you guys think I should do? Keep them divided longer? let them duke it out? or is this a definite no? Any input is greatly appreciated, I'm new to this so even if it seems obvious please say it.
Thanks
bertolli

Remove the female completely and let the male get bigger in that tank all by himself.

Reintroduce the female in a couple of months and try again.

if you leave the divider out and let them"duke it out" one fish will win and one or both may die. so Yes Definate NO!

I normaly let them duke it out, once they are done and the male is declear victory just make sure the female have places to hide... if she dose GREAT leave them alone and if the male continue to attack her while she hide then, reset the dividers. Your fish is big enough to take some damge. Only way to pair them out is for one to show mercy to other.