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HarryHacker

http://teakdoor.com/Gallery/displayi...955&fullsize=1

Horn Flower.

Hopefully someone like Maddy will come to the rescue.



I have a Horn Flower fish and at first it would eat frozen red worms, then it turned its nose up at that, then onto standard fish food, had enough of that and now onto fresh prawns! It would rather starve than go back onto food it once enjoyed.
WTF is going on?

blackgang

They always stert to do that when they are ready to be harvested and want to be fried and served with Red Curry sauce..

HarryHacker

^

Happyman

Go to your local bird shop and get some mealworms !!!!

My birds- fish and even bloody cats, luv em !!!

bkkmadness

Horn Flowers and Cichlids in general are quite intelligent fish and can get bored of certain foods easily. And if they know they can turn their nose up at pellets and get some nice fresh prawns instead they will.

Best thing to do is starve the fish for a few days, then chuck some pellets in there, you might find it's less fussy then. If it doesn't take them starve it out again (fish can go for quite a long time without food so don't worry about that) and repeat.

You have to retrain the fish, because currently it has you wrapped around it's little fin.

After that, vary the diet as much as you can, and mix it up between dried pellet food, frozen foods and live foods.

Live foods and fresh shrimps should be a treat for these fish, a once a week thing. Pellets and frozen food should be making up the bulk of it's diet.

Also make sure you also get food that's the right size for your fish, you may find the frozen worms you give it are not bulky enough for the fish because it looks to be a decent size. Kind of like you eating a steak which has been divided into a thousand matchstick size pieces, it's not enjoyable. Same with the pellets make sure they're a decent size.

I always have trouble finding frozen food here, it always seems to be just bloodworm for sale. In the UK pet shops you could get frozen lance fish, cockles and decent sized shrimps which would be ideal for you but unless they can found at JJ market or a specialist fish shop I don't know where you can buy them.

Your tank set up looks really nice by the way. Nice to see these fish being kept in natural conditions rather than just a bare aquarium.

Good luck and let us know how you get on with it.

Happyman

Have forwarded your pic of the fish to my lady back in Taiwan for translation !

The mark on its head - with my very limited knowledge of written Mandarin - looks similar to the character for "happiness" or "fortune"

If so you are sitting on a bloody investment !!!

HarryHacker

^^ and ^^^thanks.

Maddy, first of all, that was a google image, just used it to confirm the fish in question, mine looks the same by the way.
You are quite right, it does have me wrapped round its fin, it really does go into one if it does not get what it wants. I have tried starving it but the pellets just remain so after a day i take them out in case they 'go off' I take your point re the bloodworms, makes sense.
By the way, just to show how sad I am I call it Dang. FFS

HarryHacker

No Chinese speaking fish in my condo.

bkkmadness

How long did you try starving it out for?

Beware about the meal worms idea, if it takes a liking to them you'll end up having to feed it them everyday. Again, it's a once a week treat food.

HarryHacker

48 hours, it still refused the pellets.

bkkmadness

Starve it out for longer, 4-6 days even then try it on the pellets. If it doesn't eat them let it go a couple more days without food and try again. 48 hrs is only a couple of missed meals really and these fish can be stubborn.

If you have no luck after this, mix in a couple of fresh shrimps in with the pellets, see how that goes. Sometimes the fish will eat both and get back on the pellets, sometimes they ignore the pellets completely and only eat the shrimps. Worth a try though.

Realistically you might end up having to starve the fish out for 2-3 weeks before it breaks and starts eating pellets again.

HarryHacker

^ wow, thanks for the advice Maddy.

blackgang

Or again, you might eat the sumbitch, thats what I would do..

Happyman

Now Now !

Thats not very constructive - the man is asking for help - not a friggin menu !

kingwilly

HarryHacker

As daft as it sounds, these particular fish do appear to have some character quite unlike other types of fish.

bkkmadness

Large Cichlids (the family to which this species belong) are amongst the most popular aquarium fish, noted for intelligence and character. They are reputed to be able to differentiate their owners for other people.

Look how easily this one has whipped HH into giving him fresh prawns everyday.

Chuck Norris

The tapir at Bangkok zoo is plain ridiculous.

jaiyenyen

Hi HH,
I'm having a similar problem with my Flowerhorn. He's my second, and I've only had him 2 week's. The problem is that he doesn't want to eat anything. Even the fresh prawns I put in his tank are still swimming around.
Do fish sulk? because I think my bugger does!!

I feel your pain brother HH

__________________
Do not walk beside me, for I may not lead. Do not wlk ahead of me for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the fuck alone!

bkkmadness

If it's not happy it will not eat. He may just be settling into his new environment, have some patience.

After some time it should eat anyway, when it gets really hungry.