Flowerhorn is a truly wonderful fish. Eye cathcing, captivating and awe inspiring these fishes has taken the world by storm. Flowerhorn fish history involves trying to explain the origins of a flowerhorn in order for us to truly appreciate this species. From its first appearance up to the present time the Rajah Cichlasoma is constantly evolving to meet the ultimate aim of fish hobbyists a beautiful body with matching colors, distinguished stripes, gorgeous shine, a nice big kok and hopefully a more hardy and disease resistant fish. This chart explains the evolution of flowerhorn fishes.
Flowerhorns were believed to have first evolved in Malaysia sometime in 1993 although many Malaysian breeders would contend to having bred them as early as the 1980's. Malaysians admired these various cross bred cichlid fishes with protruding head, known as Karoi, in the western part of Malaysia.These Karoi fishes were most probably cross breed of Cichlosoma festae and Cichlosoma trimaculatus as to the exact steps and proportion onl the master breeders would know. The Taiwanese were also at the same time breeding these chiclids due to the auspicious nature that a slight protruding forehead and long tail, would bring. The following year (1994)saw the introduction of the Red devil cichlid to Malaysia which gave the early flowerhorns their human face or monkey face characteristic. The cross breed were aptly named as The Human Face Red God Of Fortune. The following year (1995)the Human Face Red God Of Fortune were bred to the blood parrot which gave rise to five colors god of fortune. They were also called as Chai sen strain and included also the three colors and five colors god of fortune. In 1998 the jing gang parrot and seven-colours blue fiery mouth, from South America, known as Greenish Gold Tiger were used to create what is now known as the Hua Lou Han. The Hua Lou Han is what we now know as the modern day flowerhorn. The following are pictures of early flowerhorns known as the Hua Kok as made popular by Ah Meng in 2000.
Flowerhorns were believed to have first evolved in Malaysia sometime in 1993 although many Malaysian breeders would contend to having bred them as early as the 1980's. Malaysians admired these various cross bred cichlid fishes with protruding head, known as Karoi, in the western part of Malaysia.These Karoi fishes were most probably cross breed of Cichlosoma festae and Cichlosoma trimaculatus as to the exact steps and proportion onl the master breeders would know. The Taiwanese were also at the same time breeding these chiclids due to the auspicious nature that a slight protruding forehead and long tail, would bring. The following year (1994)saw the introduction of the Red devil cichlid to Malaysia which gave the early flowerhorns their human face or monkey face characteristic. The cross breed were aptly named as The Human Face Red God Of Fortune. The following year (1995)the Human Face Red God Of Fortune were bred to the blood parrot which gave rise to five colors god of fortune. They were also called as Chai sen strain and included also the three colors and five colors god of fortune. In 1998 the jing gang parrot and seven-colours blue fiery mouth, from South America, known as Greenish Gold Tiger were used to create what is now known as the Hua Lou Han. The Hua Lou Han is what we now know as the modern day flowerhorn. The following are pictures of early flowerhorns known as the Hua Kok as made popular by Ah Meng in 2000.
Coronation Link
Tornado Effect
Perfect Harmony
Unique track
Absolute wonder
Ancient Warship
Creative Measure
Exotic marvel
Legacy
Living Legend
Pacific miracle
Quantum grace
Rising rainbow
Royal degree
Scarlet Passion
What followed then was the widespread distribution of the flowerhorn to surrounding countries and to the Western world. Widespread distribution also meant widespread breeding and inbreeding to further develope new strains which would create flowerhorns that would be representative of that particular region. Thus we have thai, indo, singapore, taiwan, pinoy strains of flowerhorn. But from whatever part of the world they would come from they still fall into four major breed categories namely the zhen zhou, kamfa, kamalau and the golden base.
