How to feed flowerhorn frys.
Flowerhorn frys can be fed with a variety of foods. The important thing to remember is that whatever you offer your fries should be readily accepted, has high protein content and should cause minimal water pollution.
Start feeding fries when they are freely swimming. Start out with hard boiled egg yolk and crushed flowerhorn pellets. I prefer to give humpy head only as it is cheap and the high protein content makes the frys grow fast. Other pellets would do as long as they are crushed. I have also tried Nutra fin Brine shrimp flakes, earthworm flakes and tropical fish color enhancing flakes. This flake foods are easy to give and are readily accepted by the fries. Frys grow faster when they are given live brine shrimp and daphnia.
By the 3rd week introduce other live feeds like superworms and mosquito larvae. What I do is cut a superworm in half and squeeze each half to release the insides of the superworm. This method causes turbid water afterwards which would require you to do water change. Frys also have strong carnivorous instinct and will attack and eat mosquito larvae. Frys by this stage are already close to a centimeter in lenght and will be showing the plum line and a little color usually a reddish hue.
By the 4th week I give them tubifex worm, mosquito larvae or frozen blood worms. I also add osterized beef heart or osterized market shrimps. These together with crushed pellets makes your fry grow faster and
How frequent should you do water change?
Check your water parameters every now and then in order to know when to make water change but the rule of thumb is do 30% water change every other day. Daily water change may be indicated if you have a large number of fries as compared to the size of your aquarium, if your water turns murky after feeding and if you notice a lot of sediments at the bottom of the tank after feeding.
When you do water change add a little salt, chlorine eliminator, and if you like water conditioner of your choice. I prefer using a water conditioner because aside from eliminating chlorine it also stabilizes water pH. Other water conditioner have an added feature of providing for balance electrolyte and vitamins as well.
What filter should you use?
For obvious reason the only filter that would be needed is a sponge filter. Overhead filters are a not used because the suction action is too great and could easily suck all your fries into the overhead filter.
Should I use a heater?
Heaters maybe used to maintain your water temperature at 28-30oC. If you live in colder regions of the world then water heaters are a must. But if you live in warmer regions then water heaters are only indicated on colder seasons of the year.
King Bakara
