Flowerhorn tank mates - Can introduction order make a difference?

[UnclePat]

Hello all...long time lurker, first post. I've seen quite a few posts about Flowerhorns and attempts at keeping other fish with them...seen a mixed bag of successes and horror stories. I've got a young Super Red Dragon (approx. 5") who I'm getting ready to move from his grow out tank to an 80 gallon (72"x13"x21"). He's the first flowerhorn I've owned, and he's been alone in his tank since I got him. My thinking here is to introduce the potentially appropriate fish to the new tank first, let them get acclimated, and then put the flowerhorn in last. For tank mates, go either with equally tough cichlids (which potentially could cause fights right away or down the road) or with large fast/tough fish that are not cichlids (so potentially not competition, and thus main targets)...I was thinking of the latter, with potentially Silver Dollars and/or a bichir.
I figure I'd have a divider ready just in case, and worse case I have a 125 and a 90 gallon where the new guys could be relocated to. So different species fish and an introduction order into a new tank...seem like a solid strategy?

Obviously, I know this could go either way should I choose to go forward, but figured I'd ask the community for any other thoughts or ideas. Thanks all.

 

[Deadeye]

Flowerhorns are known to not accept tankmates in just about every tank they are put in. Armored cats have the best success.
If you have a relocation plan, it’s worth a shot, but realistically an 80 really only leaves room for the one flowerhorn.

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

There is no potentially appropriate fish to add as a tank mate to a flowerhorn in something as small as an 80gal tank. Honestly I wouldn't even say it's worth a shot. There's almost zero chance it will work for very long and you're just stressing out fish for something that has probably a 99% fail rate. IMO.

 

[UnclePat]

Appreciate the feedback! I’ve seen quite a few YouTubers and other posts about success in the same size range of tank…obviously bigger tank always helps regardless. It’s hard to get a feel of those successful examples are the exception to the rule, or viable. I’ll give it some further thought. Thanks!

 

[jjohnwm]

If you define "success" as most you-tubers seem to...i.e. these fish were put together last week and nobody is dead! Success! Now let's throw in some live goldfish and have a show!...then you may very well be "successful"...or you might not.

But if success requires the fish to live together until they reach full adulthood, and past that point...then that's a trick, and made harder in such a small tank. I've never had a flowerhorn, but my limited experience with some of the notorious tough-guys of the cichlid world suggests that the day will come, probably sooner rather than later, when you wake up to a bloodbath. Personally, I don't see the appeal of a tank that has me on pins and needles everytime I walk into the room and look at it.

I want a tank that has the vibe of a quiet small mid-western town...not a maximum-security prison exercise yard the day after the TV's go on the fritz.

 

[UnclePat]

I would like to hear from anyone with some hands on experience attempting this kind of thing. A lot of what I see out on the interwebz is supposition, perhaps like the view on YouTubers, so first hand experiences are nice to hear. I’ve also kept notoriously aggressive cichlids with non-aggressive fish by avoid competitive food sources and or swimming spaces etc.

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

You're getting hands on experience, at least from me. An 80gal is, IMO, not even large enough for a FH as an adult. Tank mates are likely impossible. I'd say totally impossible, but "never say never" and all that. Even as a juvenile, 99% of FH will not tolerate tank mates in a small tank. Or even in larger ones.

 

[jjohnwm]

^ There ya go!

As I stated, I have never had a flowerhorn, but had lots of other big cranky cichlids through one phase of my fish-keeping career. Kept together in a 360-gallon tank, an uneasy truce could be maintained...often...well, at least sometimes...

In an 80-gallon? No way I'd try it...with any large, known-aggressive cichlid species.

 

[gourami guru]

4 years experience keeping keeping flowerhorns here. We all get that itch to introduce new fish, many of us have tried. My advise is to stop looking at the 1% of instances that might work out and look at the 99% that fail. I have attempted to keep to plecos with my flowerhorn in the past. Both were ripped to pieces. An sexually mature male flowerhorn is an extremely aggressive fish. Mine will bump into the glass and throw water out of the tank whenever he sees me approached his tank. In my experience a flowerhorn will kill or eventually kill any and all tankmates and if tankmates is a must for your aquarium look into other cichlids.

 

[bknot1]

I have been only keeping Flowerhorns for about 2 yrs now... I do think you can have success if you introduce them at a small size they can be kept with tankmates... Mines (4 - 2 SRDs and 2 Silk Thai) are in a tank with 3 Ornate Bichirs, 1 Redtail catfish, 1 Sun Catfish, 2 Common plecos, 7 Jaguar cichlids, 2 Dovii's, 5 Green Texas cichlids, 6 Convicts and 2 Black Nasty's...

If they are older and bigger< I think it would be a problem as they are used to being alone in tanks...