Breeding Flowerhorn Part 8
Posted on
Last month we went over the hatching of the eggs. This month, we will go over how to raise the fry. Next month we will go over how to grow out the fry.
Flowerhorn have large Spawns and there can be 100 to 600 eggs, so you will need at least a 10 gallon tank to start the fry rearing process. We recommend that the set up be very simple, a 10 gallon tank, a submersible heater and a sponge bubble filter. That’s it.
Flowerhorn, even as fry, are extremely hardy. You do not need to worry very much about water conditions such as Ph and Gh. It is important that you keep the water very warm, around 82 degrees, to stimulate growth and appetite. You also need to make sure that there is no ammonia build up in the tank. On a daily basis, for the first month, you will need to do partial 50% water changes. The best way to do this is using an airline as the siphon and very slowly sucking up the food on the bottom. We run the airline into a net over a bucket, so that if you suck up any of the fry, you can recover them.
They will start to become free swimming about 2 to 3 days after hatching. Flowerhorn fry, while still extremely small, are larger than many other Cichlid fry. This is a huge advantage, as compared to other Cichlids such as a Discus, as they can eat larger food. Newly hatched Brine Shrimp is the best food for the first week. Two days after they become free swimming, we start mixing in Beef Heart Flake that we have sifted into a fine powder. After two weeks, we stop the Brine Shrimp and feed them exclusively a mix of Egg Yolk Flake and Beef Heart Flake, once again made into a fine powder. As they grow, you need to gradually make the powder more course by sifting it through a larger mesh.
There will be some fry that die no matter what you do. These are the weaker and/or defective ones. Natural selection will eliminate 10 to 30% of the fry. The ones that are left will be the strongest, healthiest ones.
