Pics Of My New Red Dragon Zz *pic Heavy*

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GShorty1981

Fish Herder
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
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I bought him for £50 last week, he is 6" long, 8 months old, he eats like a pig, and he glass bangs like a pro, attacks me everytime i put my hand in the tank, he is the coolest fish i have ever had, my wife and kids play with him all day lol

Tell me what you think?

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He is about 8.5" if you include the tail, his actual body is 6", hes quite chunky to.

I'm no expert and this is my first real Flowerhorn, what do you think of his quality etc?
 
Looks stunning, there is a blue one in my LFS and I would love him to get a good home as he is in their small display tanks.  Where are you located?  Maybe you could find room for him somewhere then you would have a red and a blue one ;)
 
Enjoy...
 
I expect the one you mean is a 'Titaniam or Thai Silk' they are nice looking fish :)
 
No room tho for anything but this guy, he trys to kill me through the glass let alone any companions lol
 
Stunning looking fish - any chance of uploading a video?
 
[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lice_YS9WEw[/VIDEO]
 
 
Ha ha feisty one there :D

A fish with real character!

What size tank is he in? Love his setup.

What type of food and how often do you feed?
 
he is in a 70g (Fluval Vicenza 260) filtered by a Fluval 305 external filter, with 50% water changes weekly, i feed him 3 times a day on Hikari Cichlid gold, just a few pellets at a time, once a week with Bloodworm or Krill, and because i do high protein diets for myself, i eat a lot of Tuna, Mussels and Prawns, i always give him some of that when ever i have it.
 
My kids all fed him on a chopped up mussel earlier, i cut it into 4 pieces, one for each child, and he munched it all :p
 
I want to get him hand feeding, but problem is, he bites me any chance he gets lol.
 
I also give him 5-10 mins a day time with a mirror in his tank, it makes him colour up very red, he seems to enjoy fighting his reflection lol, he is a complete uber cute psychopath :p
 
Wow! Nice fish: very colorful and entertaining. Big too.
Excuse my ignorance and laziness to just google it but:
How big do flower horns get?
What are they hybridized off?
Is he full grown now?
 
random one here for you. i have herd of people hand feeding or in some cases touching/ handeling their fish in their tanks but does it not get rid of their natural slime when you tough them or is it ok ?
 
Nice fish :) I had a thai silk flowerhorn. I bought him at 2 inches and sold him on when he was around 7 inches. He was in my 125 gallon tank on his own. I did try to add some fish in with him when he was around 4 inches. A larger jack dempsey... the flowerhorn killed it. Then i tried a larger buttikoferi.... again the flowerhorn killed it. Then i tried a 10 inch common plec... the flowerhorn didnt actually kill it but he did constantly bully it so the plec had to be rehomed.

I owned 4 red belly piranhas before, 1 of which turned phsyco and killed the rest.. attacked my hand when i tried to clean the tank and so on... but my thai silk was far worse lol. He was crazy. I have owned other aggressive cichlids like jewels, jaguars and even a male dovii. Overall the fh was the most aggressive by far for its size.

When i did water changes and cleaned the tank i had to mobe the fh into my 40 gal... he was that bad. Ate like a pig too but i loved him. Loved how he used to follow me back and forth the tank and how he would swim in loops to get my attention... I could watch him for hours.
 
GShorty1981 said:
he is in a 70g (Fluval Vicenza 260) filtered by a Fluval 305 external filter, with 50% water changes weekly, i feed him 3 times a day on Hikari Cichlid gold, just a few pellets at a time, once a week with Bloodworm or Krill, and because i do high protein diets for myself, i eat a lot of Tuna, Mussels and Prawns, i always give him some of that when ever i have it.
 
My kids all fed him on a chopped up mussel earlier, i cut it into 4 pieces, one for each child, and he munched it all
tongue2.gif

 
I want to get him hand feeding, but problem is, he bites me any chance he gets lol.
 
I also give him 5-10 mins a day time with a mirror in his tank, it makes him colour up very red, he seems to enjoy fighting his reflection lol, he is a complete uber cute psychopath
tongue2.gif
 
In respect to getting him hand fed, start with a pair of tongs so that he gets used to taking the food directly from you.  Over time you can move your hand slowly down the tongs until your fingers are near the end but if he bites down he will actually still bite the tongs.  Once comfortable that he is regularly taking the food without biting the hand that feeds, you can use a fist with the food held in-between your fingers, as this is a lot less tempting than fingers to bite.  
 
I would also be tempted to break the behaviour you want down into smaller chunks e.g. place your hand in the tank and then reward the fish from behind him or sometimes at the side with food i.e. the fish will stop attacking the hand but turn to look for the food when the hand enters.  Over time, he should no longer go to attack the hand, as it is a signal for food to appear elsewhere in the tank (use the tong approach with your other hand initially) ;)  Vary the position in which you reward so it does not become predictable behaviour.
 
Avoid any negative association with your hand, i.e. do not tease him or let him see your hand put the mirror in the tank etc.
 
Slowly without rushing is the key in animal training ;)  Plus it is better to get the animal to offer the behaviour then reward it, rather than attempting to force the behaviour.
 
Once you have mastered the above and the fish is "conditioned" you can then teach him other things, like swimming through a hoop, touching an ornament on a signal etc.  The kids will love it, plus it will be your party piece.
 
Take some videos of your training if you want more info., as I can advise further if you want based on the animals behaviour.
 
Hope that makes sense, any questions please ask... 
 
TallTree01 said:
Wow! Nice fish: very colorful and entertaining. Big too.
Excuse my ignorance and laziness to just google it but:
How big do flower horns get?
What are they hybridized off?
Is he full grown now?
 
He is only about half grown, he will get to about 12", there has been reports of 20" Flowerhorns in Thailand, not sure exactly what they are hybrids of, they deffo have The Trimac Cichlid in them, maybe Red Devil/Midas cichlid and maybe Redhead/Syns, no hes still a juvi, he will get much longer and thicker.
 
PlumbersMerchant said:
random one here for you. i have herd of people hand feeding or in some cases touching/ handeling their fish in their tanks but does it not get rid of their natural slime when you tough them or is it ok ?
 
I do touch him, but not excessively, and if i did i would get bit pretty hard lol
 
dbanner said:
Nice fish
smile.png
I had a thai silk flowerhorn. I bought him at 2 inches and sold him on when he was around 7 inches. He was in my 125 gallon tank on his own. I did try to add some fish in with him when he was around 4 inches. A larger jack dempsey... the flowerhorn killed it. Then i tried a larger buttikoferi.... again the flowerhorn killed it. Then i tried a 10 inch common plec... the flowerhorn didnt actually kill it but he did constantly bully it so the plec had to be rehomed.

I owned 4 red belly piranhas before, 1 of which turned phsyco and killed the rest.. attacked my hand when i tried to clean the tank and so on... but my thai silk was far worse lol. He was crazy. I have owned other aggressive cichlids like jewels, jaguars and even a male dovii. Overall the fh was the most aggressive by far for its size.

When i did water changes and cleaned the tank i had to mobe the fh into my 40 gal... he was that bad. Ate like a pig too but i loved him. Loved how he used to follow me back and forth the tank and how he would swim in loops to get my attention... I could watch him for hours.
 
Yeh i couldn't imagine him having any tank mates, he wants to kill everything in my living room...me..my 4 kids...the dog...the 3 cats..the wife lol
 
RCA said:
he is in a 70g (Fluval Vicenza 260) filtered by a Fluval 305 external filter, with 50% water changes weekly, i feed him 3 times a day on Hikari Cichlid gold, just a few pellets at a time, once a week with Bloodworm or Krill, and because i do high protein diets for myself, i eat a lot of Tuna, Mussels and Prawns, i always give him some of that when ever i have it.
 
My kids all fed him on a chopped up mussel earlier, i cut it into 4 pieces, one for each child, and he munched it all
tongue2.gif

 
I want to get him hand feeding, but problem is, he bites me any chance he gets lol.
 
I also give him 5-10 mins a day time with a mirror in his tank, it makes him colour up very red, he seems to enjoy fighting his reflection lol, he is a complete uber cute psychopath
tongue2.gif
 
In respect to getting him hand fed, start with a pair of tongs so that he gets used to taking the food directly from you.  Over time you can move your hand slowly down the tongs until your fingers are near the end but if he bites down he will actually still bite the tongs.  Once comfortable that he is regularly taking the food without biting the hand that feeds, you can use a fist with the food held in-between your fingers, as this is a lot less tempting than fingers to bite.  
 
I would also be tempted to break the behaviour you want down into smaller chunks e.g. place your hand in the tank and then reward the fish from behind him or sometimes at the side with food i.e. the fish will stop attacking the hand but turn to look for the food when the hand enters.  Over time, he should no longer go to attack the hand, as it is a signal for food to appear elsewhere in the tank (use the tong approach with your other hand initially)
wink.png
 Vary the position in which you reward so it does not become predictable behaviour.
 
Avoid any negative association with your hand, i.e. do not tease him or let him see your hand put the mirror in the tank etc.
 
Slowly without rushing is the key in animal training
wink.png
 Plus it is better to get the animal to offer the behaviour then reward it, rather than attempting to force the behaviour.
 
Once you have mastered the above and the fish is "conditioned" you can then teach him other things, like swimming through a hoop, touching an ornament on a signal etc.  The kids will love it, plus it will be your party piece.
 
Take some videos of your training if you want more info., as I can advise further if you want based on the animals behaviour.
 
Hope that makes sense, any questions please ask... 
 
I'd like to give this a go but i think i have wound him up to much playing with him already lol.
 
GShorty1981 said:
 

he is in a 70g (Fluval Vicenza 260) filtered by a Fluval 305 external filter, with 50% water changes weekly, i feed him 3 times a day on Hikari Cichlid gold, just a few pellets at a time, once a week with Bloodworm or Krill, and because i do high protein diets for myself, i eat a lot of Tuna, Mussels and Prawns, i always give him some of that when ever i have it.
 
My kids all fed him on a chopped up mussel earlier, i cut it into 4 pieces, one for each child, and he munched it all
tongue2.gif

 
I want to get him hand feeding, but problem is, he bites me any chance he gets lol.
 
I also give him 5-10 mins a day time with a mirror in his tank, it makes him colour up very red, he seems to enjoy fighting his reflection lol, he is a complete uber cute psychopath
tongue2.gif
 
In respect to getting him hand fed, start with a pair of tongs so that he gets used to taking the food directly from you.  Over time you can move your hand slowly down the tongs until your fingers are near the end but if he bites down he will actually still bite the tongs.  Once comfortable that he is regularly taking the food without biting the hand that feeds, you can use a fist with the food held in-between your fingers, as this is a lot less tempting than fingers to bite.  
 
I would also be tempted to break the behaviour you want down into smaller chunks e.g. place your hand in the tank and then reward the fish from behind him or sometimes at the side with food i.e. the fish will stop attacking the hand but turn to look for the food when the hand enters.  Over time, he should no longer go to attack the hand, as it is a signal for food to appear elsewhere in the tank (use the tong approach with your other hand initially)
wink.png
 Vary the position in which you reward so it does not become predictable behaviour.
 
Avoid any negative association with your hand, i.e. do not tease him or let him see your hand put the mirror in the tank etc.
 
Slowly without rushing is the key in animal training
wink.png
 Plus it is better to get the animal to offer the behaviour then reward it, rather than attempting to force the behaviour.
 
Once you have mastered the above and the fish is "conditioned" you can then teach him other things, like swimming through a hoop, touching an ornament on a signal etc.  The kids will love it, plus it will be your party piece.
 
Take some videos of your training if you want more info., as I can advise further if you want based on the animals behaviour.
 
Hope that makes sense, any questions please ask... 
 
I'd like to give this a go but i think i have wound him up to much playing with him already lol.

 
You can start from NOW, a learnt behaviour can be modified but you have to remain consistent i.e. if you decided you wanted to hand feed him then you could not revert back to teasing him or this would create "suspicious behaviour" which causes the animal to become un-predictable.  It is harder to modify a learnt behaviour than starting from scratch, as first of all you have to un-do what has been done
wink.png

 
Hope that makes sense and let me know if you go ahead and need any help...
 
PS: I once had to train a dog to bow for a photo shoot, it was so easy as the dog was a show dog so had never been taught to sit!  Most dogs will sit by default, whereas this dog soon learnt bum in the air plus head down i.e. I did not need to modify the old behaviour of sitting
wink.png
 

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