Breeding Flowerhorn Part 8
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Previously we discussed the hatching of the Flowerhorn eggs. Now we will go over how to raise the fry. Soon we will go over how to grow out the Babies.
Flowerhorn have large Spawns and there can be 200 to 600 eggs, so you will need a 10 gallon or larger tank to start the Flowerhorn fry raising process. We recommend that the set up be pretty simple, a 10 gallon tank, a submersible heater with thermostat and a sponge filter. That’s it.
Flowerhorn fry are extremely hardy compared to Angelfish and Discus fry. You do not need to worry much about the water conditions such as Ph and Gh. TDS should be inder 200. It is important that you keep the water very warm, around 82 degrees, to stimulate growth and appetite. You will also need to make sure that there is no ammonia build up in the rearing tank. On a daily basis, for the first two weeks, 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, making sure you do not also suck up the fry. We run the airline into a net over a bucket, so that if you suck up any of the fry, you can recover them. When the food is gone, you use a larger frexible tube to suck up more water that is away from the babies.
The Flowerhorn Fry will start to become free swimming at about 2 to 3 days after them hatching. Flowerhorn fry, while small, are larger than many other Cichlid fry. This is a huge advantage, as compared to other Cichlids such as a Discus and Angelfish, as they can eat larger food. Newly hatched Brine Shrimp is the best food for the first week. Two days after the Flowerhorn Fry become free swimming, we start mixing in Beef Heart Flake in a very smal amount 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 will need to gradually make the powder more and more course by sifting it through a larger mesh.
There will be some Flowerhorn 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 Flowerhorn Fry. The ones that are left will be the strongest, healthiest ones.
