Breeding flowerhorn

[weston]

Hi so my idea is this, if I were to get some of the not so desirable looking flowerhorn that come from every batch "still coming from good breeding lines" could they produce fry with show quality features such as large koks, bright patterns, and short face/body's like the grandparents? My pair would still have the same genes as their parents to produce nice fry right? some of the batch would have to come out with the right qualitys . My reason for doing this is because from their I could keep some of the nice ones and sell, trade, or give away the others which would look decent enough people may want them from their tanks, Oh and I just wanna point out I wouldn't be inbreeding any of the fish I know a guy who has two different pair that always throw some very beautiful fry but he always gets overstocked with the undesirable fry I'm looking for.

 

[weston]

I've seen a lot of people viewed this thread but no one has commented?? Does anyone know the answer please tell me if you do. Another reason I'm interested in doing this experiment is because male flowerhorn are expensive especially when you aren't even sure if they are fertile and proven males cost a fortune this way I could start off with a bunch of fish and I'd have to have atleast one breedable male/female pair please let me know if this sound like a somewhat thought out plan or if I'm completely wrong and need to go back to the drawing board, thanks

 

[Ihsnshaik]

I been doing this for a while. Let me tell you this the chances of a male flowerhorn being fertile is very high! So Kamfa breed takes about two years for males to mature so thats maxed out size already. I have very high quality ZZ/Kamfa imports that breed at size 1.5" all the way to 4". Very small fish are having fry and producing eggs. Trust me when I say this it depends a lot on genetics like you said. Will the males look like grand dad...A good chance it will or will carry dominant genes like a kok or pearls.

What you're doing has been done for many many years and I have done it. You want the lineage to be strong and many inbreed them to get the recessive and dominant traits out of the fish. The ones that I got are brother and sister who breed which is normal I did it by accident.

So out of the fry I got lets say 24. About 10 look like the father about 6 look just like the mother and 8 are a mix which are amazing. The females have huge koks and colors of both parents.

 

[Alex562]

Listen to this man. His fry look amazing!

 

[Ihsnshaik]

Listen to this man. His fry look amazing!

Thanks Alex!

 

[weston]

I been doing this for a while. Let me tell you this the chances of a male flowerhorn being fertile is very high! So Kamfa breed takes about two years for males to mature so thats maxed out size already. I have very high quality ZZ/Kamfa imports that breed at size 1.5" all the way to 4". Very small fish are having fry and producing eggs. Trust me when I say this it depends a lot on genetics like you said. Will the males look like grand dad...A good chance it will or will carry dominant genes like a kok or pearls.

What you're doing has been done for many many years and I have done it. You want the lineage to be strong and many inbreed them to get the recessive and dominant traits out of the fish. The ones that I got are brother and sister who breed which is normal I did it by accident.

So out of the fry I got lets say 24. About 10 look like the father about 6 look just like the mother and 8 are a mix which are amazing. The females have huge koks and colors of both parents.

Well thanks for letting me know and I just didn't want any of the poor or weak genes coming out, this may not be the case with flowerhorns but when I was younger I had this happen with mollys they were some of my first fish I had kept and they interbred with each other so often that they all developed curvatures in their spines, I only started of with about 3 or 4 fish and ended up with 45 fish in my 29 gallon tank and im not sure how many in my parents pond durring one specific summer so as you can assume a lot of incest and poor genes being passed down occurred. sadly, some of these fish got so bad that many could hardly swim and some were just dying for unknown causes shortly after they hit adulthood I ended up dumping the rest of these fish in my parents pond with the others where many of them died durring the first winter and up until about a year ago they still had some mollys in with their goldfish and koi remember this is after years of them surviving in a outdoor pond.
Anyways what would you suggest I do to start this project? What do you believe I will be needing equipment wise, how many fish should I start with, and finally what age or size should I be able to breed these guys and get viable fry at? I'm new to this I currently only have one small flowerhorn who I know very little about on the grand scale of things other then what to feed him and keep his water temps at please just help me out and help to fill my brain with some knowledge on this subject, cause I got the idea but I don't know where or how to go about turning it into reality also many different people online I've seen give different Advise or false information, thanks

 

[Alex562]

Pics?

 

[Ihsnshaik]

Well thanks for letting me know and I just didn't want any of the poor or weak genes coming out, this may not be the case with flowerhorns but when I was younger I had this happen with mollys they were some of my first fish I had kept and they interbred with each other so often that they all developed curvatures in their spines, I only started of with about 3 or 4 fish and ended up with 45 fish in my 29 gallon tank and im not sure how many in my parents pond durring one specific summer so as you can assume a lot of incest and poor genes being passed down occurred sadly, some of these fish got so bad that many could hardly swim and some were just dying for unknown causes shortly after they hit adulthood I ended up dumping the rest of these fish in my parents pond with the others where many of them died durring the first winter and up until about a year ago they still had some mollys in with their goldfish and koi remember this is years of them surviving in a outdoor pond.
Anyways what would you suggest I do to start this project? What do you believe I will be needing equipment wise, how many fish should I start with, and finally what age or size should I be able to breed these guys and get viable fry?? I'm new to this I currently only have one small flowerhorn whom I know very little about on the grand scale of things please just help me out and fill my brain with some knowledge on this subject, thanks also how many of the flowerhorn you got as fry came out looking like the parents themselves

For starters get a known male and female. Mine can breed at size 1.5 the females and males around 3-4 inches. Breeding setup would be 40 gallon breeder with a divider. Put the male and female on the other end. If her tube comes down do a large water change and then put them together. Watch them if the male gets aggressive separate them. Put a large pot or slate or rock by the divider. Two methods the natural way have the male and female lay eggs and fertilize or sometimes the male can fertilize through divider.

If you want to get juveniles get 6 of them and they will pair off but I don't do this personally. You can get casualties like this and don't risk it when doing expensive fish.
Use only sponge filters and never turn on the lights. Thats what I do only in breeding mode unless you need the lights on to clean and what not.

Get some VERY high quality fish.

 

[weston]

For starters get a known male and female. Mine can breed at size 1.5 the females and males around 3-4 inches. Breeding setup would be 40 gallon breeder with a divider. Put the male and female on the other end. If her tube comes down do a large water change and then put them together. Watch them if the male gets aggressive separate them. Put a large pot or slate or rock by the divider. Two methods the natural way have the male and female lay eggs and fertilize or sometimes the male can fertilize through divider.

If you want to get juveniles get 6 of them and they will pair off but I don't do this personally. You can get casualties like this and don't risk it when doing expensive fish.
Use only sponge filters and never turn on the lights. Thats what I do only in breeding mode unless you need the lights on to clean and what not.

Get some VERY high quality fish.

Ok thanks is their a specific food I should feed them prior to this? What about a temp that might trigger them to breed? And finally How can u tell high quality from the non high quality fry at such a young age just by the parents genes?? also how will I tell the sex of the fish to know if I have pairs when their this size? that young seems incredibly small to start breeding. So My final question is would you be interested in shipping me some fry?? Lol if so what would you charge? Outside of shipping of corse

 

[weston]

Pics?

Pics of what?? Lol sorry I'm alittle behind today.