New Baby Faded Fishes

Hi all once again!

Its been a while since I made a post. We have been closed for the Chinese Lunar year celebrations. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Anyway, we are now back and raring to go. Check out our latest photo album of faded fishes. Production for this type of faded fishes is getting more by the weeks, but still, the very good ones are limited. We have sent some shipments to the USA, but those are mostly "starter/entry level" faded fishes. The "show quality" ones are still kept for breeding. Sorry!

Hopefully in a few months, we will have kept enough breeding stocks and will start to sell the rest. Keeping our fingers crossed now.

Till then, keep on flowerhorning!

Al

New photo album & 2 questions.....

Hi all..

Check out one new photo album we have just posted!

Two more questions of the day...

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sir/maam
is it necessary for a flowerhorn to have red eyes or can it be white too
thanks
david

ANSWER: It is definitely not necessary to have red or white eyes. As we all know, flower horns are hybrid fishes and depending on the genes of the fishes, it will inherit features of the stronger genes. The trimacs have red eyes and the fore-fathers of most flower horns are trimacs. So if there is strong trimac genes in your FH, it will have red eyes. At the same time, genes from the man-face cichlids or some other large south american cichilds have white eyes and it will show in your present flower horn's eyes.


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Dear peoples of Flower Fish.
My name is Evan Le and in my house, I have 2 flower fish placed in a tank.
On one occasion, one of the flower fish managed to go through the seperater and when I removed it, they started to swin very close together and in sometimes, they bite each other on the mouth and hold it as if they were kissing.

CAn you tell me anything about that please?

Thank you.

ANSWER: Your fishes are locking-lips and they are definitely not in love! They are fighting and you must separate them immediately. If you see wounds on the mouth because of the fight, you should treat them with acriflavin or salt, just to prevent the wounds from getting infected. Remember, never put two flower horns together unless you want dead or injured fishes as pets. ;)

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White poo poo!

Hi everyone...

We received an email from a distraught hobbyist today and I would like to share it with all..

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Hi there,

I need a help to save my "kimo" flower-horn fish.
About 3weeks ago, he stops eating and I have notice that his color is becoming dull, he is not as happy and aggressive as he used to be.
He stops eating for the past 2weeks and his waste looks like a long soft white tread, about 2-3 inches long.

I have tried to feed him some feeder fish, but this did not work as he does not take or like to eat them.

I check on the water temperature and it is about 75 to 80 deg. F. (safe zone?)
A pet-shop vendor told me that it cold be the water temp, as we have a cold weather recently in Hawaii and he recommend to put a heater.
Also, he sold me a Furazone Green capsules to put in the water...seems not working.

I really want to save Kimo as he is my loving fish, I want to see him back in a happy condition.

Please advise what to do. Again, any help and suggestion to this is highly appreciated.

Worried Flower-horn fish friend.
Eugene

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Hi Eugene...

This is a very common case of bacteria infecting the fish's stomach. You would need antibiotics to treat it and its called metronidazole . You will have to mix the white powder with hot water, wait for it to cool down and pump it into the mouth twice a day. Just use a syringe without the needle (or what ever you call that) and shove it into the fish's mouth as deep as you can. You will have to squeeze its gills together so that the medicine does not flow out from there. Then pump as much as possible into the stomach.

Do this twice a day, and remember to raise the temperature of the tank to about 30 celcius. Do this for about 4-5 days. Start feeding the fish only after 3 days, and check if the fish eats. Check its faeces to see if the white stringy poo is still visible. Continue this until you see that the poo is dark in color and it is considered healed.

This method is not guaranteed to work but it has worked for us lots of times. Or you can read a little on other treatment methods such as here http://www.wetwebmedia.com/metranidazole.htm
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VM053

Hope this helps....Al.

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Thank you. I would like to grow another one, but not sooner coz I want to make sure that I will be a good pet keeper next time.
Anyway, do you know why the fish gets this illness? I want to prevent this next time rather than getting into the same situation and curing or saving the fish mode...
Sinecrely thank you.
Thank you.

Hi Eugene..

This often happens when the fishes' immune system is low thus getting the infection easily. There is always a multitude of bacteria, protozoa, viruses, etc in the water but if your fish is healthy the chances of it getting infected is low.

Most of the time, it is because of bad water quality, stress or foreign pathogens that is introduced into the water by feeder fish or live food. Sometimes it is also the food that you feed your fish, which consists of protein that is not easily systhesized by the fish's digestive system.
You can find out a little more about proteins here.

Hope this helps, and pls post on the thread/blog here if you have more questions. This way all other readers can benefit from it.. Thanks and good luck!

Al

Feeding Regime For Flowerhorns.

Hi all..


I received a very good question from a FHUSA member by email today and I think I should answer it in here...

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Al Vin

Great job w/ the new blog. I'm curious... what's the feeding routine you guys use, from fry to adults?
I'm assuming bloodworms to pellets, but I can only guess.
Food in Asia is much cheaper than it is here in America... unfortunately for us.

Regards,
Thomas (FHUSA)

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Well, Thomas...

For the fries, it depends on the size and age. For fries that are less than a week old, they are fed with live artemia(hatched) or frozen. Anything more than a week old will be fed with live tubifex worms. That is the fastest way to pump up the fries. I think it will be very difficult to get this in the US, so the next best bet would be frozen blood worms (the smaller sized ones). They are fed twice a day. But in our case, because the tubifex worms are alive, it is considered free-feeding for 24 hours.

As for the fries that are already separated for "finishing thouches" they are pumped up with blood worms and GrandSumo pellets, 3-4 times a day. GrandSumo Red is fed early in the morning, and immediately after that, a "dessert" of blood worms .. yummy!

Lunch will be purely 100% GrandSumo pellets (green) and about 3pm, again, GrandSumo pellets(green). At about 6pm in the evening, 100% frozen bloodworms is fed again and that is the last meal of the day. Sometimes, we will skip the 3pm "tea-time" for them.

As for the large breeding stocks, it is purely 100% GrandSumo(green), 3 times a day.

The most important thing to remember when feeding is concerned is that the fishes must finish their food in 10-15 minutes. If there are any leftover food, it MUST be removed else, there will be a build-up of ammonia. Pls read this article to clearly understand what I mean.

Hope this answers your question, Thomas!

Al

Whats Coming to the USA?

Hi flowerhorn crazees!

Check out some of the fishes that are coming to LA next week! They are some of our better fishes and we are sending some fully faded fishes as samples.

Also coming will be ONLY 8 medium sized fishes, about 5", all top-grade, full-rounded head. You will have to see it to appreciate.

15 pieces trial shipment of 100% fully faded fishes with a combination of faded kamfas and faded ZZs.

For ZZ lovers, shock yourselves with the 40 bubble heads of dragon-ZZs, orangy Dragons, etc. Remember to visit our partner in LA... Total Fish & Pets or their website at http://www.flowerhornking.com

Ciao!

Al