Fish Mutants Pisc added

Guys, what you think about fish such as Parrot cichlid or Flowerhorns? To be honest I was really sceptic about those man made fish and I thought they are just nicely coloured mutants without even Latin name
But I have to admit that I change my mind, maybe not completely yet, but a lot...
Few months ago I got new tank. It was full set up with fish and whole lot. There were about 20 different fish, mostly cichlid. Two of them were Parrot and Flowerhorn, which paired up and spawned successfully. I knew that it is not common to get any viable fry from them, as in most cases eggs are not fertilized and just dying off. After some research I found out that if you'r lucky fry can actually hatch, but most of them are to weak or deformed to survive.
Well, that does not apply to my pair of Mutants After second spawn I decided to raise fry separately from their parents. I took out the stone completely covered in eggs and after placing it in 50 lt tank and I was waiting for the results. Two days later some black stripes appeared on the eggs and on next morning there was about "two millions" of wrigglers. Only few eggs turned white, and wriggles were doing perfect too. 4 days later all this "hords" start to swim freely in search of food. They were on artemia for first 2 weeks and their grow rate was extremely fast. In the first month they reach about 15mm and I could only spot a few with visible deformations. After another 7 weeks and few "rehousing" sessions to bigger tanks they are still doing well and eating tonns of food Some of the young ones are up to 45mm now and showing nice colours after their father. None of the fry carrying mother genes unfortunately.

Pair is living now in 240 ltr tank only with two big tiger botia, and they spawning every 3-4 weeks. It's amazing how good parents they are! And all this without passing this genes throughout species generations.
Sometimes I'm thinking that I should get rid of them and made a space for some "real" fish, but more I care for my "Mutants" more respect I have for them!
I will upload some pics tomorrow.

Congrates on successful rearing of some interesting hybrids. Some love them some dont, if you look at modern farming most animals especially pigs and chickens are man made hybrids. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

some snaps.








young ones are 9 weeks now and growing fast. Some are already showing great colouration.

what can ye do about it.

it happen in the wild rod an beam in our very own water ways in our country.

and very play to ye for doing a great job rearing the fry.

i'v spend well over grand on my tank an fish with no joy. (

so hats off to ye pal

My personal preference is for fish with form and colour close to their wild appearance. If I were to buy an angel fish for example, it'd be silver with black stripes. But that is just a personal preference and I'm not saying I think you're at all wrong to buy/like/breed hybrids.

I say po-tay-to,
You say po-tah-to!

The fact is that so many popular fish are hybridised or considerably inbred to the Nth degree; the aforementioned Angels, Goldfish and any number of livebearers. The only point where I would draw a line is where fish are malformed and their lived drastically shortened just for our "delight". However I'm not sure we can object to hybridisation in our tanks when so many of us keep hybridised wolves in our living rooms

some interesting points here. the fry look like normal central American cichlids and show very normal body/head shape so far and no sign of the parrot mouth/shape. also it is an indicator re the genetics that they produce fry which I reckon would also be fertile. the parrot fish types are supposed to be very hard to breed and the flowerhorn can also be so. it will be of interest to see how they colour up and I suspect they will be.
I have noticed that the flowerhorns generally have great personality and this is why they are so very popular the parrot is more about colour but both are hugely popular esp. in asia.
I will be interested to see how the fry develop.

I taught it was the opposite parrot great personality flower horn about colour?

dubdero wrote:

I taught it was the opposite parrot great personality flower horn about colour?

I've never kept either but have seen them in shops and various other tanks and there was one flowerhorn in particular in seahorse and he was entertaining the customers with his antics and tank re arranging.
I suppose it is typical of all of the C.A cichlids (from which these are derived) that they are fearless and quite intelligent in behaviour.

I find the parrot to be a very interesting fish, as is the flower horn
I wouldn't have them in my main tank, but I might keep them in a kitchen tank or in another room somewhere so me time,