Breeding Flowerhorn Part 5
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Prviously we went over getting a pair to spawn, we will go over the actual spawn.
One of the first sign that your Flowerhorn are preparing to spawn is that the Flowerhorn will begin to clear off a surface in the tank. Often they will clean of the bottom of the tank, which makes removing the eggs and raising them artificially impossible. Flowerhorn can lay up to 500 eggs in one spawn and that requires a surface that is about 8 inches square. Before the spawning the male will have been the dominant fish. During the entire spawn process and while the fry are not yet free swimming, the roles will reverse and the female will become dominant. She will act aggressively to the male and often will do “Lip Locking” with the male which looks like a sign of courtship. Lip Locking is not a sign off affection such as in kissing. Rather, it is acutally a sign of aggression in the courtship. Unlike many other Cichlids, Discus for example, they will do very little in the way of a spawning “Dance”. At some point the female Flowerhorn will try to steer the male to the area that will be the spawning surface. The spawning process actually starts when she begins laying the eggs. She will usueally lay them in rows of 10 –30 eggs. The male will usually follow behind her, often every time she lays eggs and at other times after every 2nd, 3rd or 4th laying run, and fertilize the eggs. After the spawn is complete, the female will stay directly above the eggs and the male will stay on the periphery of the eggs and guard against all intruders. If you put your hand in the tank, it will be viciously attacked.
