The "FlowerHorn" is easily to bread because they always adapted to the environment in very short time. They also have an active and curiosity character. The hobbyist can discover that these species were much clever than others fishes. The "FlowerHorn" can establish closest relationship with their breeder in just a few days. Many hobbyists are on the move trying to collect the best "FlowerHorn" of all. Since competitions are found annually in Asia, hobbyist tries to create a new strain of their own. It is always a dream for a Hobbyist to create the best of the best and flaunt their most prized possessions to others.




Breeding "FlowerHorn" are quite easy, but maintaining a successful pair is quite challenging. There is always a rule of thumb where the Male must be twice as large as the female in order to create a good pair. The reason behind this ratio is because while the female is beginning to spawn, she is extremely aggressive and may seriously injure or kill the male. A larger male will be able to tame the female properly. Flowerhorns are very aggressive in nature and I highly advise beginners not to attempt this challenge where their beautiful fish can be placed at risk.

Once a male and a female has been chosen, it is recommended that the male and female are introduced into the same tank, but separated with a clear divider. While the pair is separated, you will be able to see the reactions of the pair. If the male and female do not show significant aggression towards each other, remove the divider and closely monitor the pair.

After the male and female has been introduced and are a compatible pair, the female will develop stress marks and begin creating a nest by moving gravel. The female will franticly cleaning a desired area before spawning. Also, the female's sex organ will become enflamed (white tube) and will begin to lay eggs within 4-6 days.

ahhh part 2 will to be continued.

Jimmy

Jimmy

Can't wait for part two.

Rick

Jimmy,
Great article ! Can't wait for Part 2.

Very informative indeed....now for the next part pse.....

Very cool!!! I'm interested in trying to breed my LH. Any info would be VERY helpful. Cant wait for Pt. 2!!

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I will try my best to answer each and every question to my best knowledge.

Part 2

Soon after the female has laid her eggs, the male flowerhorn would fertilize them. Try to minimize activity around the tanks to prevent extra stress placed upon the couple. A clay dish is recommended while spawning becuase it keeps everyone nice & organized and moving the eggs to a seperate tank will be much easier. Not only that, Flowerhorns love the dish becuase if it's rough texture and it's sides.


In the picture above, my male is fertilizing the eggs for the female inside of the clay dish.

After the eggs are fertilized, you have two options:
1. Leave the eggs with parents

OR
2. Remove the eggs and place them into a 10 gallon pre-treated tank w/ anti-fungus medication


With the eggs removed, you will have greater success spawning. However, with the parents inside the tank, the female FH will do an excellent job caring for the eggs, but there is also a chance that she might eat it. It is recommended to remove the eggs. =]

ALso, dont forget to unplug your water pump and install sponge filters. You dont want your little fries to be sucked up.....

Anyways.. i gotta go... part 3 will continue tomorrow.

Goodnight and god bless

Jimmy

Is it tomorrow yet???

Very nice Jimmy...

Very informative article, one of the advantages to FHs is that they don't require a large tank to breed like many other cichlids. Breeding is definitely the next level in FH keeping. I used to breed exotic snakes for many years when I was married. I specialized in Red Tail Boas, but when things didn't work out and I found myself single, most girls were afraid of snakes so I got into FHs becase they remind me of redtail boas:

1. Markings called widows peaks v. plums were highly coveted.
2. The red tail had to be intense v. red on FH covering as much of the body as possible!
3. Massive size v. exhibition size FHs=a man's pet, not for the weak at heart!
4. Shimmering scales v. pearls

Unfortunately, I have pics of my old snakes but no scanner so here is a pic from the net so paste this link and take a look.

http://www.tbc.net/~gknaack/pics/boas/surinamboa.html

But my point is, be responsible with breeding.

Do not flood the market with crap as this will upset the novice FH keepers when they become dissappointed after a few months and give up on FHs.
Never misrepresent your frys as somethinbg they may not be.
If you are not willing to cull the bulk of the frys and only raise the top percentage for sale, please don't breed your FHs!

Yes, I do agree. We do not want people to begin breeding uncontrollably. Only 10-15% of the fries are quality fish.

Part 3

After you have decided which route to take with the eggs, it will take approx. 72 hours for the eggs to hatch. Eggs will begin to develop tails and if you look closely, you will see the dots which are the eyes of the fry. If fungus prevention medication is added, and there are fungus tainted eggs, there is a possibility that the male didn't fertilize the eggs. These fishes breed once every 6-8 weeks. There is no need to worry, there is always a second attempt.

After the pair has laid eggs, be sure to seperate them once again. Ive noticed that the female and the male fight really bad after spawning. It is recommened to keep a close eyes on the parents as well.

For the first 2-4 days of hatching, the fries do not need to be feeded. They usually feed off their eggs sack or nibble on the algae or build up in the tank. What I do is use the eggs yolk of a boiled egg to feed the fries.

1. Hard boiled egg
2. Remove the yolk
3. Use a cloth or a handkerchief and wrap the cooked egg yolk.
4. Throw it into the freezer.
5. Once frozen, throw the cube into the water for feeding and place back into t he freezer once feeding is completed

You can also used a variety of other feeds for fries as well such as crushed flakes, Daphnia, baby brine shrimp,
You will use this method of feeds for the first 2-3 weeks. Once they have grown large enough, feed them tubiflex worms or blood worms. Separate the large fries from the smaller fries so they all have a chance to eat and grow.

Live feeds trigger spawning much more quickly then dried feeds.

Feel free to post if there are any questions

Jimmy

Great breeding tips Luckyfh, I'll try to attemp breeding fh with your helpfull information, thankx man!!

Thank you buddy, but feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Jimmy

P.S. try to get the dish.. it works.. and its been proven!

Breeding should only be done if you have enough tanks and experience to handle all the fry. I will breed eventually but will not keep any more then 3-5 pieces, the rest will all be put to sleep. Maybe keep the best two and put the others up for bidding.

Breeding should be controlled all of the time. We do not want junk LH flooding the market. Yet, if there is high restriction, then the variation of LH will be limited as well. Breeding may sound easy, but trust me, it is not something beginners should do.

Jimmy

Precisely,

Breeding good quality LH need years of experience. Culling is always not advisable. However due to their number of fries per brood, its ranges from hundreds to thousands of them. Only top 5% are of better quality.
Hence think before you actually breed them cause you will face alot of problem on how to hold them in different tanks.
Lh at the size below 3inch are still able to live in a community tank, Any size above that, you will be expecting to see torn fins and injuries among them unless the size of the tank is huge enough to host them.

Good day

LH.BM,
You are right on the money. Raising fries segregated is a costly procedure. Thats why we leave it to the farms to do this job. We are only able to see the flowers and pearls at an early age, but with body shape and head is long term. Unwanted fries should be properly disposed, either putting them to sleep or feeding them to bigger fish. Breeding flowerhorns should be done at a large facility where they have enough tanks to house all of the fries. Just imagine this... one batch of fries range from 500-1000 depending on the size of the parents. Only 10-15% are quality fries, and only 5% are high quality fries. One would need to have a facility to house 50-100 fries individually and wait approx. 2 months to determine are they are top quality. Once the math is done, breeding is an extermly time consuming and costy task.

I am the few of many LH keepers that prefer having a pair of FH, instead of having 1 male in a tank. Just 1 male in a tank is quite empty and i dont want my LH to get lonley.



Jimmy

i have fh and a red devil in my tank and they seem to be great friends.. always playing and digging together. when i first got them the fh was much much bigger then the red devil but it looks like the red devil is growing much faster? do u guys think im going to have a problem once they get to be the same size?

Well Importconnection.. if they are playing together.. and digging a nest.. maybe you got a pair going! Like you said.. the Red Devil is larger then the FH, then i am quite certian you have a female FH. These 2 fishes are possible to breed.

Common Name:-, Red Devil. Scientific Name:-, Cichlasoma Labiatum
Common Name:-, Flowerhorn, Luohan. Scientific Name:-, Rajah Cichlasoma

So maybe? Good luck!

Jimmy

WHERE CAN U GET THE CLAY DISH?

Hi,
You can find the dish at your local hardware store / nursery. Theya re used with clay pottery for plants. The price range for this item is from $1-2 USD and sizes range from 4" to 12". Goodluck! Also, after the eggs are ready to be removed, besure to place the dish in a vertical position to prevent dirt from falling on the eggs.

Jimmy

Apart from placing the clay pottery in a vertical position, there are some female fh which is able to take care of the eggs. Just make sure that this particular tank is placed in a low traffic area. In this way, the female fh will not feel threaten, thus eating up all the eggs.
Good luck !

Hmmm... Glad to have read this. My fh paired up but I had to separate them. will be busy this week to check on the fries. Thinking of trying out breeding with my cheap fh first before I move on to the higher grade. A little worried about ending up with my expensive fish torn to pieces.

Is it possible to get good grade fish from fh with b grade markings but nice shape color and kok?

I know this can freak out a lot of ppl here but will anything bad happen to my cat if I feed it culled fh?

hey.. well i guess anything is possible. There have been occasions that my breeder has bred 2 B grade looking FH anad have resulted in A grade fries. Maybe it is in genetics, but with good quality parents.. the chance of getting nice fries ussually increase. But alwayas keep in mind that only the top 10% will become quality fries. Goodluck and happy flowerhorning!

Jimmy.

ps.. why do you gotta feed yoru cat ugly fries? thats mean.. i think you should use it to feed bigger fh.. but to felines? that is very strange.

Goodluck!

I was just thinking, if I feed the culled fries to my bigger fh, they might turn into cannibals like my hamsters. always eating their babies.

The feline was just being considered as a different way of ugly fry disposal .

Only other fish I have are goldfish, betta and koi. no aro

if the goldfish and koi are big enough.... maybe the koi
feed they fry to them... goldfish are opportunistic feeders, THEY EAT ANYTHING!!!

sick huh

I took off the divider yesterday and put a clay dish (actually a terra cotta fish platter ). They started swimming tandem, like two stiff boards swimming parallel. Then a nest digging competition started. pebbles, spat out and pushed around, plants pulled out. Nest here, nest there. They were digging like crazy and i was so excited. I even placed piece of slate in case she didn't llike the idea of laying eggs on the fish platter.

Ten hours I waited. And then it happened. My little feisty girl decided to beat the crap out of her boyfriend. I decided to put up the divider again when I saw her bite part of the big guys lip off. Guess there won't be any little fishies yet.

Might try again when my koi get a little bigger.

Sure you can get A quality fish from B grade parents but just know that the offspring of these offspring will have an even lower chance of having high grade offspring. Am i making any sense? Probably not. We should breed only the highest quality we can get our hand on, and even then, cull heavily. Good luck

wow thanks for this info.. this would really help

hey jimmy when did u breed these guys?

Hi,
I bred them about..????? 6 months ago??? I dont recall.. they do really well together... so i never took them apart. They lay eggs approx. every 6-8 weeks when i feed them live food every day... such as crickets, feeders, and grocery shrimp. Hows ur pair going? any better?


Jimmy

which pair? flowerhorn?oscar? convicts?im thinking about breeding red devils and green terrors now ...what do u think?

is it better to turn the pot in the other direction so they cant see you and they feel more compfortable. are it doesnt matter

Hi,
Well of course, keeping minimal contact with the breeding pair is best, it is up to the breeder on what is best for their pair. I do agree that turning the pot the other direction is good too. South American's do like to spawn in cave like enviroment hense Flowerhorns are hybrids of them. Hope this helps!

Jimmy

my female fh is about to lay eggs again. she's been in a divider along with a male fh for weeks now. i tried the method of moving the eggs instead of mixing the 2 fish, and the male just ate the eggs.
then just this morning, i tried to put the 2 together since they seem pretty calm with a divider. the first 10 seconds was ok then the male just attack her so i freaked out. didn't want to put her at risk so i divided them again. is that normal for the male to attack her at first? i didn't get to see if he will attack again. didn't want to wait for that. is that better than just moving the eggs to the male side? or are they just not a compatible pair? should i change the pair and look for a compatible one?

yeah the female's always laying on a weekday too while im at work. it sucks i can't monitor them at all. i'm definitely going to try to put them together again. her tubes are out, i think it will take another day till she lay eggs again.

what kind of hiding place can i use tho? cracked clay pots? won't the male be able to move that around still?

hey... im new here... "o"/

i need help with my FH, the female just laid eggs 3 days ago... sh'e guarding her egs badly and i don't think we can transfer the eggs because we aren't expecting to breed our FH ( we just put dividers on the aquarium to save up space for the 3 flowerhorns) and now we want to try breeding with this batch....

i let the male and the female swim for around 30minutes, wud that be enough for the eggs to fertilize?

I read that it'll take 3-4 days to hatch the eggs... should i transfer the female to another aquarium and let the eggs hatch? If they don't hatch would that mean they were not fertilized? They're still yellow in color, the white eggs which i read is not fertilized is already eaten up by the mother....

thanks.. your help is greatly appreciated...

" i already have a 6 inches golden red beauty, how can i distinguish whether it is a female or a male!!!!!

i've got a 3 inch green comet a female one but my golden red beauty the male one is about 6 inch total length can i steel put them togehther!!!!! i'send a picture of my green comet and it does'nt have any flowers!!!!

cool lectures, u keep on giving good and informative info back there!!!!! hey a bout this i've got a green comet a female , 3 inches long and a golden red beauty which was about six inches total length, will i be able to put the female with the male or will it just eat it!!!!

I need help with my FH, the female just laid eggs 2 days ago... sh'e guarding her egs badly and i don't think we can transfer the eggs because we aren't expecting to breed our FH, i just put a clear dividers on the aquarium so the Male FH did not eat those eggs, but its seem the Male FH is guarding it under his body, it is my first time to witness FH laid her eggs, is it the male who lay those eggs?

I read that it'll take 3-4 days to hatch the eggs... should i transfer the female to another aquarium and let the eggs hatch? If they don't hatch would that mean they were not fertilized? They're still yellow in color, the white eggs which i read is not fertilized is already eaten up by the mother?

thanks.. your help is greatly appreciated...

Hi! this is LITO of Philippines realy great reading your instruction how it works succesfully the breeding system of Flower Horn,... Actually one of my FH is laid her eggs last 2 days ago, and i notice it wont work those tips you have said, maybe its my first time to witness it, maybe next time i will follow all your tips, i notice those all eggs start hatch after the male FH fertilizing it, sadly all the eggs already hatch but it seem there is no live fry, instead it looks like a small cotton flauting around my aquarium, what happen then? i did not separate eggs i let them beside on the male FH, while my female FH is still laid her egg, what is the best thing i could do to successfuly breed the eggs?

hoping for your reply....

thank you again

LHITO

hi!

My female fh already laid eggs a couple of times already but never was it fertilized by a male flowerhorn. I tried pairing it with a male fh just beside the clear divider of the female fh but the male wont fertilize it. Maybe because they are not a compatible pair is that it??

We have another couple now which i tnk is a compatible one because they are on the same tank and the female fh laid its eggs successfully. I tried putting a plate inside the tank but the eggs was laid outside the plate and into the pebbles inside the tank. what should i do?? Should i transfer the eggs stuck onto the pebbles? or should i just transfer the male and female fhs on two separate tanks to prevent them from eating the eggs and to avoid fighting?? Im just afraid that the eggs will be miscarriaged or unfertilized if i transfer the eggs along with the pebbles in another tank. Please give me advice on this. Thank you very much

richard

you can hatch em yourself..not hard at all..

ahh! my flower horn's eggs are light brown (some tuned white... think theyr dead), are they fertile? will they turn dark when theyre ready to hatch? this is my second time to try to breed my fish.. hope i get a better result. thanks!

[FONT=Times][I]no doubt, a great useful infotmative article gj dude,but as u said breed only once every 6 to 8 weeks its possible in less time coz mine only half of that time but my fh cant make the eggs hatch and what u mentioned in 1st part of art. theres no way for me to removed the devider, im afraid to do so seems like they will kill each other, what i tried was move the eggs to male so he can fertilize them, is this possible?, i did it 2X by now but with no succsess, ive got 3 male and only 1 female,yes, i tried with every male but nothing, i really appreciate it dude if u can help me about this, thx in advance

WOW!!! great information bro!!!! very informative to a newbie like me!!!! thanks for the info man!!!

My FHs eggs just hatched last night!! this is my second time to try breeding...This time i got another high quality female to pair with my Fh (I think its pointless to breed Low quality Fhs) The eggs now look like little tadpoles xept theyre pinkish...only 40% of the eggs were fertile and hatched the rest turned white so i had to remove them...

I noticed the fishes lay their eggs around 10:30 to 11 PM...do they also lay eggs in the am?


Im planning to cross my female with my kamfa..kekeke! wish me luck!!

Will a female FH lay her eggs eventhough there is no male FH with her inside the tank? I have a female about 4.5 inches already but she hasn't laid her eggs yet and i'm wondering if I should put a male inside the tank with her (of course with a divider at first).

Thanks.

[quote=oman,Mar 30 2005, 03:53 PM]
Will a female FH lay her eggs eventhough there is no male FH with her inside the tank? I have a female about 4.5 inches already but she hasn't laid her eggs yet and i'm wondering if I should put a male inside the tank with her (of course with a divider at first).

Thanks.

[/quote

yes bro, even then there is no male FH, your female FH will get laid their eggs soon, coz my 2 female FH get laid there eggs simultaneously without a male around, the only problems i had now is, i dont have the male FH to hatch the eggs... coz twice happen my female FH get laid their eggs.

Thanks for the reply bro. Great info.

NewB here wondering what I should do with my fh's.

Female laid eggs with male in tank, but won't let him get near it. The eggs are slight yellowish. I noticed the female eating the eggs. WHAT SHOULD I DO?!?!?

It's prob to late for this batch, but for future reference. Thanks