Sweet Pairs

[_cRaCkEr_]

Thai Kamalau

Bubble Head

+/- Comments ?

 

[Synirr]

Their colours are GORGEOUS, but those nuchal humps are disturbing

 

[_cRaCkEr_]

Their colours are GORGEOUS, but those nuchal humps are disturbing

Those nunchal humps makes the Flower Horn unique and getting expensive.

The bigger the Kok (hump) is the more beautiful to FH enthusiasts and getting expensive as well.

These Flower Horns are amazing pets !

 

[catxx]

like synirr said, pretty colours, but really not liking the lumps!
are they going the way of fancy goldfish then?

 

[_cRaCkEr_]

Yeah ! at first I hated their face because the head is so big and looks so ugly but on the latter part when I learned about the history and how precious these FHs are, I got so much interest and I breed them and join some FH contests.

 

[aardvarkfromspace]

The female in the first pic is cool, but those big bubbleheads aren't my thing.

 

[Insomniac]

Nice colours, but they look like they have tumours on their heads!

 

[_cRaCkEr_]

Yuck, poor fish. Horrible what some people do for money

...this coming from the guy who has a very overstocked 20 gallon....

anyways, beautiful fish! i just purchased my first flowerhorn the other day...im very excited to see him full grown. His kok is already developing, and he is only about 3 inches...so i hope its a big one. once again...beautiful fish.

Oh nice..... let me know if you have things you want to know about flower horns. I can share some techniques though.

Brian

 

[_cRaCkEr_]

..you have 30 fish in a 20 gallon tank...anyone who knows anything knows that is way overstocked..doesnt matter how much filtration you have..there is a point where too much is too much. i dont go by 1 inch per gallon rule either, because i have high levels of filtration...but i would never put that many fish in that tank...nor would most others. and i didnt mean to offend you by saying guy.


ANYWAY, ya i would appriciate any tips you have to help my guy do as well as he can.

Post up some pic of your Flower Horn

 

[funkybodal]

yeah...does it have a big kok on its head?

 

[sylvia]

I think the humps suit flowerhorns and your pics are lovely.

BTW - to those of you saying it's cruel to breed fish like this, though I appreciate it is exaggerated in the flowerhorns, a lot of wild species (both cichlid and not) have similar humps. Some even grow humps matching in size to the flowerhorns without having been selectively bred at all. I see nothing wrong with it as long as it isn't compromising the fish' health (which it obviously isn't) and there's no danger of them causing issues within wild populations as flowerhorns themselves are hybrids and can cause problems whether they have the hump or not. If anything, we should be complaining about the effects of hybridizing fish in the first place for commercial purposes (or any other personal gain).

Cichlids and various cyprinids are the most likely species to possess nuchal humps.

For anyone who's curious, here are pics of a handful of natural fish with nuchal humps:
http/www.cichlidlovers.com/c_frontosa_ikola.htm - frontosa
http/www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/fron...eep_water_1.jpg - another front
http/www.tropicalfishfinder.co.uk/dbimag..._adult_3(1).jpg - osphronemus goramy
http/www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/osphronemus.jpg - so cute! another o. goramy
http/www.cichlidlovers.com/c_moorii.htm - cyrtocara moorii
http/www.fishtanksandponds.net/images/ph...ara-moorii2.htm - and more
http/species.fishindex.com/photo_922cyrt...in_cichlid.html - and another grumpy-looking one
http/www.fishtanksandponds.net/images/ph...ara-moorii1.htm - and the last blue dolphin
http/www.cichlidrecipe.com/shellweb/shell_species.htm - even n. multifasciatus has a small hump! (scroll down)
http/akwarium.cdi.pl/walls2/cichlasoma_synspilum1.jpg - cichlasoma synspilum
http/www.cichlidrecipe.com/cichlidrecipe/crp13.htm - fronts and moorii

There are plenty of other species with nuchal humps - some more pronounced than others - but you'll have to google them yourself if you want to see more pics

 

[OohFeeshy]

Oh I know that, its just the 'big hump=big money' attitude that I find irritating. Seems to me the only reason FH's are being bred is to get the biggest hump possible so they sell for the biggest money possible...

 

[Unphased]

i love my flower horn.

if she wanted to generate a lil extra cash for me on the side whats the big deal with that? the bigger the hump the more money... how is that bad? its just like anything else in life. the bigger the engine in a car the more money. the bigger tv the more money it costs. ect.

 

[sylvia]

I do understand where you're coming from with the money thing. It is deffinately a selfish attitude. However, the same applies with most things and, like I said before, creating an expensive hybrid (namely the flowerhorn) was irresponsible to begin with. Taking advantage of the harmless nuchal hump seems much less of a problem to me. The fact that flowerhorns are hybrids is much more harmful than their hump and they are expensive in comparison to most other species of large cichlid regardless. Besides, the same applies to several other species of fish and no one complains - the larger the koi, the more expensive - for example.

I did notice someone earlier compared flowerhorns to goldfish - it's not the same. The selective breeding in goldfish has resulted in some very harmful extremes - eg fish that cannot swim, fish that have their eye-sight obscured or fish that either are extremely susceptible to swim bladder or are very prone to injury. I'd say the same for extreme tail-type bettas which can have their fins torn by excessively powerful water flow. And the same applies to fancy guppies and dwarf gouramies - both of which have suffered a weakened immune system and shortened lifespan through selective breeding and extreme inbreeding for coloration and fin-type whilst ignoring health. Then there's more unusual examples such as certain swordtail varieties that have a gonopodium so extremely long they cannot breed - whether that's a very bad thing or not depends on how you look at things - but I think a fish incapeable of breeding due to people's selfishness is deffinately compromised unfairly. All these have also been created with a profit in mind but with far worse consequences - and there are still many more examples.

What I'm trying to say, basicaly, is that I think everyone's complaining about the wrong thing.

 

[Synirr]

All these have also been created with a profit in mind but with far worse consequences - and there are still many more examples.

It's only a matter of time for flowerhorns if their popularity continues to rise, mark my words. Those nuchal humps are going to continue to grow until their eyesight is obscured and it becomes difficult for them to swim, if this isn't already happening with some of the more extreme examples. I can't think of a species off the top of my head that was the victim of extensive selective breeding for physical characteristics that hasn't suffered in some way, given enough time. Think of persian cats that can't breathe and have serious sinus problems, or meat animals (primarily pigs and chickens) that have become so bulky and disproportionate that their joints fail them and they become crippled or lame very early in life.

When selective breeding is taken to such an extreme that the health and wellbeing of the animal suffers, something is wrong.