Seeking Flowerhorn / Cichlid Lovers

[jacquelp]

I am gonna venture into fish rearing for the 1st time and desperately need valueble advice on
1. What fish to buy. Thought of Flowerhorn. But what is Cichlid? I'm really illiterate to this entire scene and welcome anyone who can share knowledge of home-rearing (aquarium) fish with me....but it has to be for good fung shui.

2. Where to by genuine fish. This Forum mentions Aquatic International in Subang. Anyone got the actual address? Cos I want to go there ASAP. (My dear fish is waiting for me )

3. What size of this fish should I buy and how should the appearence of the fish look like? Should I go for a specific color shade or extra stripes or bigger flowerhorn on fish head?

4. Any good suggestions on the Aquarium? Can I add other pretty fish or does my fish have to be a loner?

I know its too many Q's that I've asked but I will really appreciate some helpful comments [/img][/list]

[kevkoi]

AI's no good for Flowerhorns (they've got 'em but I don't suppose it would be of any good quality). U're better off looking at those 'only flowerhorn' shops... (Plenty around.)

I don't know very much about the flowerhorn, other than it is a hybrid fish of possibly Trimac and Red Devil lineage. That would give a hint of their temperament and size. They get LARGE (as I suppose you know), are highly aggressive (hence you don't see 2 adult FH's in the same tank.... unless they are breeding or something.), and are messy feeders.

Firstly, u'd be looking at getting a nice big tank. 4ft tank would be an idea for 2 FH fish (separated by a glass partition of course!). For tankmates, u'd most likely be looking at a pleco (aka 'bandaraya' fish)..... or if you'd get a bigger tank like 5-6ft tank, then possibly an arrowana, a large catfish, or some other big fish. Anything fish smaller than it would be conveniently turned into a play toy if not dinner. Filtration would need to be substantial especially if you're thinking of feeding life food like guppies or shrimp. For a 4ft tank, I'd suggest at least 2 box filters for 2 FH fish.

Also, make sure you read up about cycling a tank b4 u add the fish in (ie about building up bacteria in your filter b4 putting the fish in.). Make sure your tank is properly up and ready and the filters have been running for a while b4 you go out and buy a whole lot of fish. Not good Karma (dunno about Fung Shui) to go killing fish....

Good luck.

[freakmaster]

Hmmm....don't know much about feng shui...but I supposed any vibrant coloured fish would be good. However, I would suggest that since this is your first attempt at fish rearing, it would be wise to keep hardy fish first, as dead fish = bad karma (as mentioned by Kev ).

Anyway, flowerhorn is quite a hardy fish. But have you thought of having a community tank? ie having different kinds of compatible fish in one tank???

However, the most important thing to do for the moment is to understand the cycling of the tank and to do tonnes of research on the fish that you want to keep.

Oh, and one more thing, fish keeping requires you to commit your time to maintaining the tank and the health of your fish. So, don't just jump into fish keeping just because someone says it's good for feng shui. Most importantly is your interest in fish keeping. Best of luck in your venture! :P

[GTR]

visit my own collection of the flowerhorns at
http://www.autolancia.com/fh
one of my collection

hehehe... :P :P