'CHICKENED' FLOWER HORN

[cwnchong]

Hi, to all flower Horn keepers,

I wud like to share my experience about my 5 months' old 4" flower horn.

3 weeks ago it suddenly behaved very fightened dashing around and find a place to hide itself whenever somebody was around. During this time it turn dark and floats on its side pretends to be dead.

This happened after I treat it with frozen red worms. Initially when the worms were poured in it came immediately for it, but when I retern a minute later I notice some left over and the fish was hiding behind the pump.

I stop the feeding, thinking that the fish must be sick. 2 days later
I change 30% of the water and added about 0.1% salt. No result and the fish dash around hitting hard on the glass whenever somebody is around. I then change 50% of the water, the next day still the same. I changed 80% of the water still no change.

I was looking around for info to treat the poor fellow but cudn't get much help. cos the F. horn website are quite limited. Then I heard from a friend he too had the same experience but unfortunate his flower horn died when the hi-blow was knocked out and got disconnected.

It has been like that for almost 2 weeks. Only last Sunday it started to show improvement. I started to feed with life prawns and until now it coming out to ask for more food.

Has any one had this experience and can tell us why. My wild guess is maybe the fish is about to transform to adulthood.Also how can we differentiate its sexes at this tender age.

Any experts around pls share.

chong

[newgern]

Hey buddy, I think that, Flower Horns need time to "GET TO KNOW" the aquarium and the environment. My Flower Horn also behave like this when I 1st bring this tiny little feller(about 2 inchs) back to my house and put it into a 4ft aquarium.

This little feller keep hiding at back of the pump, and some conners that grown up with some algeas, pretending to be algea. LOL

And i feed him 3 times a day with Red Worms and pallets. And now i'm trying to train this feller, and i think he is getting used to the aquarium and sometimes chase my fingers when i put them on the glass. And i keep some small fish with it, and this feller keep chasing those other small fish! What a mean fish...Interesting!

Regards,
John

[Cheng Feng]

Hi Chong, I had same experience with you each time feed with frozen red worms, and it behaved very fightened for few day, now I already stop feeding feeding with red worms. Try to feed with dry food or fresh prawn. according my friend is red worms made from Japan are more clean, if you still want to feed luohan with red worms.

Originally Posted by cwnchong

Hi, to all flower Horn keepers,

I wud like to share my experience about my 5 months' old 4" flower horn.

3 weeks ago it suddenly behaved very fightened dashing around and find a place to hide itself whenever somebody was around. During this time it turn dark and floats on its side pretends to be dead.

This happened after I treat it with frozen red worms. Initially when the worms were poured in it came immediately for it, but when I retern a minute later I notice some left over and the fish was hiding behind the pump.

I stop the feeding, thinking that the fish must be sick. 2 days later
I change 30% of the water and added about 0.1% salt. No result and the fish dash around hitting hard on the glass whenever somebody is around. I then change 50% of the water, the next day still the same. I changed 80% of the water still no change.

I was looking around for info to treat the poor fellow but cudn't get much help. cos the F. horn website are quite limited. Then I heard from a friend he too had the same experience but unfortunate his flower horn died when the hi-blow was knocked out and got disconnected.

It has been like that for almost 2 weeks. Only last Sunday it started to show improvement. I started to feed with life prawns and until now it coming out to ask for more food.

Has any one had this experience and can tell us why. My wild guess is maybe the fish is about to transform to adulthood.Also how can we differentiate its sexes at this tender age.

Any experts around pls share.

chong

[johnson lee]

Hi

I have been keeping luohans for a year now. Never had any problems feeding them red worms!

I also alternate with pellets and live fishes. They all seemed to be growing very well. The frozen worms must be kept in the freezer all the time to keep them fresh. When you want to feed, just cut out the requried amount. Wait for it to thaw before you feed. Throwing in a forzen chunk of red worm cube would scare the luohans away.

Try this and you should have no problems because luohans love red worms!

Rgds
Johnson

[kenji]

my luohan fish now refuse to eat when i first bought it back home
for the last five days, the fish enjoy what i feed it than all of a
sudden it keeps hiding behind the filter and it refuse to eat, it
appear to be very scare all of a sudden which i have no idea, now its like
gonna die, cos its sometimes floating on one side and i tot it die but it did not, so i added some medicine to it can someone give me some advise on it!! please!

[Khoobg]

When a fish refuse to eat, very often it is associated with poor water quality that make your fish sick. You may wish to check your aquarium water or change some of them.

[newgern]

Kenji,

I think you should change 50 to 60% of water, put in anti-chlorine, and add salt to the water, recommended dosage is 0.3% of salt in the water(1gram of salt to 1 liter of water, make 0.1% of salt) so you should add until 0.3%

Try to put some airpump and airstone to help him breath and don't put too strong water pumps, it will make the fish dizzy, just gentle flow will do.
And please don't put any medication if no sign of sickness appear, sometimes wrong medication will kill the fish, so put only salt will do.

Hope you're Luohan will be OK!

Regards,
John

[cwnchong]

Hi Kenji,

If your fish is still behaving the same after water change it may be due to the new enviroment. Flower horn is a terrritorial type of fish. It controls its territory and when is in the new enviroment or a new territory it starts to defend itself before it take charge.
Try place 1 or 2 stones (about the size of your fish) or ornaments plus some pea size stones in your aquarium to provide some hiding place. When you do this it is important that u first take our fish.

Try this method, it will make the environment more soothing.

[cwnchong]

Hi guru Johnson and John (newgen),

Thank you for your help to my first post. I can see that this cichlid forum starting to gather speed. I really amire your fish keeping experience coupled with your proactive attitude.

I also wish to thank mr Khoo for his initialtive to make this forum possible.

Tks again yo you all and bye for now.

[newgern]

Hi Chong!

No big deal! please don't mention about that buddy, all of us here have a same hobby, and all of us are fish lovers, so we should help each other out!
Anyway, i'm not an expert, and i'm just a 18 year old college student, lol, so please don't call me guru, i'm only sharing my experience and all the ideas i though out and got from you all, budies! and some seniors.
But you surely can call Johnson as a guru! :P he is really a wise guy! And people like Mr Khoo and other!
Enjoy your hobby!

Cheers!
John