Flowerhorn Newbie
- Thread starter ol78hunter
- Start date
You guys are right. Not trying to make a big deal over how I've been grooming my flowerhorn over the last 15 years.
I prefer being open minded to ones ideas and working towards a common solution.
I just ask that if your going to claim something please note how you got your information. Hear a story? Read it somewhere? Or are you speaking from actual experience?
I agree, I am open to new ideas. I am guy who had last flowerhorn 8 years ago and used to feed humpy head to him and I did make many more mistakes.
I guess we all agree that genetic plays main role in kok size. My assumption is hormones play the factor and through selective breeding breeders choose the fish which produced the most hormones => genetics
The Nuchal Hump in Amphilophus
This subject came up recently and while this may be common knowledge to some members I thought that I would share some information from some old research papers that discuss this in fish found within the midas complex. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0016648075901367...
www.monsterfishkeepers.com
When it comes to food, they are basic building blocks for all organisms. And food content does have lots of effect
ex Flamingo are born white but they eat algae, larvae, and brine shrimp which contain beta carotene which turns them pink/red.
For flowerhorn, foods containing astaxanthin increase the red color. For kok growth after hormone/genetics just overall health/growth is the factor. That would be balanced food, good water quality and stress less enviornment.
I am not downplaying your experience and expirements over 15 years, but we as a human can interpret results incorrectly. One would be to factor out all other factors beside food. You will need a large data set as well, multiple flowerhorns from same batch split in to two batches for pallets only vs ocasional shrimp.
I personally think the hypothesis/theory should be the first step, what thing in shrimp would cause more kok growth.
Have you ever fed your fish live minnows? If not let me tell you what happens.. they grow and grow and grow. Now I've only fed my pet bass minnows because he was wild caught and could not get him on pellet but I watched him go from 15" to about 21" in a year.
I believe there is something in fatty flesh that aids in the growth. Now I've owned dozens of FH but have only given shrimp to the select few I wanted to grow immensely large heads. To my amazement the fish who had shrimp had monster heads at 4" vs their brothers who barely even had a bump.
Granted this is not scientific but I was told this trick by my elder FH keepers and it works for me.
I believe there is something in fatty flesh that aids in the growth. Now I've owned dozens of FH but have only given shrimp to the select few I wanted to grow immensely large heads. To my amazement the fish who had shrimp had monster heads at 4" vs their brothers who barely even had a bump.
Granted this is not scientific but I was told this trick by my elder FH keepers and it works for me.
I am not a fan of live feeding, too much risk of diseases. Too much fat can negetively affect the fish's health, mostly internal organs.
12 is still a small set. But may be any hormones fed to shrimps is causing it. I am not sure if there is any rish to feeding them, I assume must be safe if they are getting sold for human consumptions.
If you go to flowerhorn groups on facebook, most swears high protein diet makes kok huge.
I dont do Facebook anymore not any other social media. My wife called this website here a social media platform.. I had to set her straight hah.
You realize fish have to eat other fish in the wild to survive right? I understand not giving tank raised fish live feed but it happens everyday.
I give him sunfish, minnows and crayfish.. basically whatever I catch in the wild that will fit in his mouth is what he gets. (My bass)
So I wouldn't force my personal belief on a wild animal and drastically change his diet.
Hahaha. Agree not a social media platform.
The fish being eaten in the wild is mostly healthy and so does fish eating it. In wild, fish survival rate is very low as fish lays hundreds of eggs and very few survive to adulthood. We have interfered with natural selection through selective breeding and medicines. Also in wild a omnivorus fish eats more than just other fish.
Most of the fish we have are not wild anymore and pallets are not drastic change by composition to their diet.
I was kidding. He has much lower chances almost none getting injured from heater. He might get hurt from heater holder.
I have a new heater on the way. This one is starting to crap out. Fluctuates 3-4 degrees F too often. It stays well within range of what flowerhorns can handle but I don't like that much fluctuation. I went with the Fluval E300. Heard good things and i got it for only 30 bucks. This one has a guard so that will help too haha.
