FlowerHorn Tank.

I need a flowerhorn in my life! My last tank was suppose to house some but I ended up rescuing some fish and now its become a semI aggressive community tank. Probably gonna end up getting a 75-90G tank but just wondering if there are any botton dwellers that would do well in the tank with a single flowerhorn. Gonna be sand substrate with minimal plants/decorations/shade and more than likely lots of lights. I'm just thinking of rescuing a common pleco that is larger than whatever flowerhorn I end up getting and a single cave for him.

Also not having much luck finding a used tank so probably gonna have to pick up something new. Gonna use the same canister filter that I have on my current 90G with the same media. How much of the media should I remove to the new filter without crashing the existing tank? It also has a backup 75G HOB filter as well as the canister. Its currently set up as follows:

Canister - course sponge>fine sponge>3 layers of floss>2 Bags of Ceramic Media>2 Bags of sponge filled Bio Balls.
HoB - Prefilter sponge>FLoss>Bag of ceramics+pouch of purigen>Floss

Of course I'm interested in seeing others flowerhorn tanks and what their feeding/cleaning regime is!

 

A common pleco will need over 200 gallon minimum, so that will not work out for you longterm.

There may be other plecos though that could work, unsure.

 

Petsmart has 75 gallon on sale for 300, comes with stand, cover, lights etc. You can put a bristle nose pleco with flowerhorn. Very aggressive flowerhorn might end up killing him though. I use to keep common pleco as it was hard to find any other in India at that time. I use to get them replaced from store once they crossed some size. Plants would not work with flowerhorn. It's better to keep one in bare bottom or sand. I think taking out 20% media should be fine.

 

I'm in canada. just the 75 gallon tank alone is 350$

 

I would get a striped raphael catfish, but make sure that it is sizeable compared to the flowerhorn. if you want something to clean algae, a bristlenose pleco will do the job, but the same deal as with the raph, make sure the bristlenose pleco is decently sized compared to the flowerhorn you are soon gonna get. merry xmas!


OJ

 

I'm in canada. just the 75 gallon tank alone is 350$

That's expensive.

I would get a striped raphael catfish, but make sure that it is sizeable compared to the flowerhorn. if you want something to clean algae, a bristlenose pleco will do the job, but the same deal as with the raph, make sure the bristlenose pleco is decently sized compared to the flowerhorn you are soon gonna get. merry xmas!


OJ

Pleco will get outsized by FH soon any way as flowerhorn will grow around a inch a month.

 

That's expensive.



Pleco will get outsized by FH soon any way as flowerhorn will grow around a inch a month.

oh true I forgot about that

 

I have a four lined pictus catfish, a Raphael catfish, and a leopard pleco with my flowerhorn. My leopard pleco was a rescue from petco. They normally grow to 20” but mine is stunted at around 10”. I saw him at petco in their large tank they put fish that are brought in from other people. Apparently someone had him in a 20 gallon tank for over 10 years so mine is a old guy and he is now in a 55 gallon, considering moving him to my 130 at some point. Would like to upgrade my FH at some point to like a 75 or something so my FH and the other fish with him (pleco, pictus, Raphael) do they could have more room. Good luck!

 

My friend had to give his flowerhorn away for free because it was just so aggressive. He had him housed with a stingray, 4 bala sharks, a single pictus catfish, and a bunch of clown loaches in a 400G. He was fine until he outgrew the other fish.

I think a normal pleco is about the only good option I have long term. They sell a medium variety here that supposedly only gets to about 18" which would be fine in a 4x2' tank. Pleco's are nocturnal and bottom swimmers so they really shouldnt encouter each other very much.

If it doesn't work out, I wouldn't be the first person that had to rehome a big pleco.

IS there anything I should be aware of when picking up a juvenile flowerhorn? Is one sex or the other prefered? can you even tell the difference at a young age? I know the colours change as they age but is there any "general" way to know what there adult colors will be?

 

My friend had to give his flowerhorn away for free because it was just so aggressive. He had him housed with a stingray, 4 bala sharks, a single pictus catfish, and a bunch of clown loaches in a 400G. He was fine until he outgrew the other fish.

I think a normal pleco is about the only good option I have long term. They sell a medium variety here that supposedly only gets to about 18" which would be fine in a 4x2' tank. Pleco's are nocturnal and bottom swimmers so they really shouldnt encouter each other very much.

If it doesn't work out, I wouldn't be the first person that had to rehome a big pleco.

IS there anything I should be aware of when picking up a juvenile flowerhorn? Is one sex or the other prefered? can you even tell the difference at a young age? I know the colours change as they age but is there any "general" way to know what there adult colors will be?

Venting is the only way to know for sure. Male is much desirable than a female due to size (females would be a lot smaller), shape, color. There is no way to tell how flowerhorn will color up an an adult, I have seen pearls merge, heard pearls separating as they grow, usually colors get darker (a lot or at some extent) but mostly stay same (red fish will be red, orange will stay orange, yellow, blue (thaI silk color) and so on).

It's the fish you would really enjoy though. I had low quality red dragon which I got at 1 inch and he grew to almost a foot, who will follow my hand doing circles. A better quality one which grew a large hump.

I would say get a medium quality small fry (to be affordable) and grow it out.

ex

These might turn out to be of very good quality.