How to Know Male or Female Flowerhorn Fish

If you want to tell the difference between a male and a female Flower horn fish, you won’t have to look any further than inside your fish tank. That’s because Flower horn fish have never lived outside of captivity. They are a hybrid fish, created through breeding techniques over the years. So check out your fish tank and look for the few signs that can help you tell the difference between the males and the females.



Instructions

Things You’ll Need
Flower horn fish
200 liter tank

1. Wait until your Flower horn fish has reached at least 4 inches (10 cm) in length before you try to determine which sex it is. Differentiated features haven’t fully developed before they enter this stage of their lives.
2. Identify the shape of the anal pore on each Flower horn fish. A female’s will be shaped like a “U,” while a male’s will be shaped like a “V.”
3. Compare the hump sizes of each Flower horn fish. The Flower horn fish is known for its large hump on the top of its head, and as the fish become adults, the male will grow a larger hump than the female.
4. Pay close attention to the actions of each fish during the breeding process. Once the female Flower horn fish lays her eggs, she will stay close to them. The male, on the other hand, will protect the surrounding area to make sure other fish stay away from the eggs.

Breeding female Flower Horn

Breeding Flower horn cichlids are easy but it can be hard to get the offspring you want as this requires selective line breeding. You have to carefully choose the parents you want to breed from if you are looking to get a specific type of Flower horn fish as the outcome of the planned spawning.

To breed your Flower horn cichlids after choosing the parents you want to use you can proceed in the same way you would with many other large South and Central American cichlids. Which is quite natural since Flower horn fish is a result of selective cross breeding of different South and Central American cichlids.
This text will teach you the basics surrounding Flower horn breeding and is assuming that you have basic aquarium and breeding knowledge.

It is best to keep your Flower horn cichlids in a large aquarium to breed them and to decorate the aquarium so that there are hiding places for the female and so the male doesn’t always have a clear line of site to everything happening in the aquarium. Flower horn cichlids can be very aggressive towards their partner and a well decorated aquarium is not always enough to protect your female from the male’s advances and aggression.  Keep and close eye on the couple and if you se that the male is to aggressive you should remove the female from the aquarium . You will in that case have to attempt Flower horn breeding using a separator so that the male can’t get to the female and hurt her. Leave a small gap between the bottom of the aquarium and the divider. The gap should be too small for any of the fish to fit through. The only decorations in the breeding aquarium should be a flat stone placed with the female next to the divider. This is done to force the female to deposit her eggs on the stone where the male still can fertilize them thanks to the gap between the bottom and the divider. The filtration in the aquarium should when attempting Flower horn breeding be arranged in such a way that the water flows from the males side to the females side as this facilitates fertilization. Flower horn breeding can be achieve in most water conditions but a neutral pH level and a temperature around 28°C / 82°F is optimal.

You will have to condition your Flower horn cichlids prior to breeding. This is relatively easy achieved since Flower horn cichlids accept most kinds of food and a diet consisting of pellets and some shrimps and other food for variation will do well. Feed them several times a day and do regular water changes as the large amount of food will but a large stress on the water.

The spawning is preceded by the usual cichlid courting behavior the eggs are than deposited on an flat rock or other flat surface. Flower horn cichlids are usually very good parents once you gotten you Flower horn fish to breed. They guard their egg and fry fiercely. The fry is relatively large and will accept newly hatched brine shrimp once they are born. After a week or two you can start to feed the fry crushed flake food and pellets.

The potential problems that can surround Flower horn breeding is not over just because the fish spawned and the eggs have hatched. You will still have to keep a close eye on the fish since the male sometimes becomes aggressive towards the female and guards the fry from the female. The female must in such situations be removed or she will most likely be killed.

The source :
http://www.ehow.com
http://www.flowerhornking.com