My new flowerhorn is about 1.5 inches and its in a tank with sand as a substrate and I was wondering, is sand okay with Flowerhorns? Some people have told me I should take the sand out cause the FH will choke on the sand if it sifts through it.

Also, when is a good size for me to start feeding my FH pellet food?

sand is just fine bro. he will not choke on it. i have cichlid sand in some of my tanks instead of coral. its ok to feed him the mini pellets if he can get them in his mouth. if he cant get them in his mouth yet you can you can crush them and that would be fine too. welcome to the site!

Cheers

robert

Well I tried feeding it Hikari Baby Cichlid Gold but it just spits it out. Should I keep trying?

as long as you dont leave the food in his tank that he doesn't eat, as it will ruin your water. what does he like? i would feed him what he likes and keep offering him different stuff till you find other stuff he likes. have you tried frozen brine shrimp?

He just likes Tetra Flakes and Omega Brand Color Enhancing flakes. I tried Tubifex worms and he doesn't like those very much

post some pics of your new flowerhorn!! that would be hella cool.

I'll do it tomorrow. its 1AM where I am lol

Welcome to the forums Fhnewb, I have sand as my substrate too and got my flowerhorn about 2 and half weeks ago when he was a little over and inch long. So we are kind of in the same boat here, i fed him tetra flakes for a good week to week and a half prior to trying pellets at all. When i swtiched to pellets though, i bought Grand Sumo red and original which are very small pellets and some of the best food you can get he took right to them just gobbles them up like hes never ate before lol. He sifts through the sand quite a bit, no problems with the sand, it just flies right out of his gills.

Feel free to check out my tank and FH, he is about 2 inches now. My tank, and baby FH

I just tried feeding him some pellets and he ate 1 and stopped. Looked as if he had a little trouble swallowing it. Should I keep trying?

Right now he is just settling in. He will eventually eat. He's just adjusting, it took mine a week to start eating. And now he puts so much food in his mouth at once it sticks out. He's a pig, just keep trying. Giving them a variety of different foods is important, it bring their colour out. Krill is really good for their colour. I would get him on a good staple FH pellet first.