# how to keep a flowerhorn looking good



## jacobbonilla

how do i keep its coloration looking good and maintain a good hump growth?. ill try and feed it many types of food right now i just feed it fish flakes as im broke but soon ill buy more variety. it does eat live fish but still small yet. can i just buy all types of food like cichlid pellet, froozen brine shrimp, live brine shrimp, live fish, live prawns. etc.. or will this affect my fh in a bad way?


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## Guest

for a good Cok (the hump) get ur self this FH food called Humpy Head...dont recollect the manufacturer. there is also a certain food u can feed to bring out the coloration of the star. will post and let u know once i get the name.


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## emc7

feed the color you want. Red foods mean red fish. fish that aren't red, won't get red from red food, but fish with red on them will get more intense reds if you feed them shrimp of "color-enhancing" flake.

But the best thing you can do for it is to keep it in clean water. Poor water quality can split fins and encourage hole-in-head and other "uglyfying" nasties.


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## Guest

EMC is right on the money. u will need to feed them meat. i know people who feed the fish beef heart to improve the hump size. u will need to cycle through food to incorporate diff food. for example for a red devil fire horn i would start with 

Day 1: Morning: Mega Bite Ultra Red & shrimps / Evening: Mega Bite Ultra Red.
Day 2: Morning: Shrimp / Evening: Star Enchaning food.
Day 3: Morning: Brine Shrimp / Evening: Mega Bite
Day 4: Morning: Live worms / Evening: regular fish food.
Day 5: Morning: Mega Bite Ultra Red & shrimps / Evening: Mega Bite Ultra Red.

depending on the excrement u need to keep up with the water changes. you could alternate beef heart with the humpyhead food.


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## emc7

The reason people feed beef heart is that it is protein and cheaper than prepared foods. The mark-up on fish foods is really high (say, compared to dog food) and flower horn food in particular is way up there. You can search on DIY fish foods. People use a lot of "people food" like frozen shrimp, yeast, vitamins, hamburger, spirulina tablet from health food store. But making the "best" food can be expensive and time-consuming.

Really color-enhancement from food is short-term. Doesn't last more than a few months. Feed a nutritionally complete variety of food and keep the water clean and you can go for extreme color when the fish is closer to full-grown.

This is going to get me in trouble with the FH lovers, but flush the pricey hybrid and get a wild-type cichlid that will be beautiful without being babied for 10 years.


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