Beautiful yet strident animals, Flowewhorhorn Cichlids are some of the flashiest large fish who like to show themselves off. Yet, they are highly famous for having aggressive tendencies and defending their territorial area. Making it hard for finding tank mates that suit their personality and aggressiveness. Is it easy to set up a flowerhorn community tank?
In Spite of Flowerhorns being so aggressive and volatile, they aren’t necessarily needed to be alone. With some guidance and precautions, you can find the right tank mates.
The following article will guide you through the difficulties of keeping your Flowerhorn with other fishes and help you to get your little fishy pet the right friends in the community tank with whom these fishes can feel comfortable.
Community Tank
Community tanks are tanks that are filled with different species of several peaceful and attractive fishes, usually having a basic setup of a pair of slightly aggressive, beautiful, and show fishes are always a delight to the eyes but show fishes aren’t always necessary.
There are pretty eyecatchers, like the angelfish, discus, or Flowerhorn cichlids. The next variants are the shoaling and schooling fish. These fishes are small fish that can go around in groups in your tank. Usually kept in schools of 10–20 fishes. Normally there is a pleco, Although people are moving away from them as pleco can be a monstrous shit machine and tank destroyers. People are replacing these little devils with cories.
You should aim for having a simplistic landscape by adding some low-light plants like mosses, java ferns, and sometimes amazon sword plants if the lights are higher. Often these tank setups need huge 150+ gallon tanks, but these fishes are equally fascinating to look at. They tend to stand out in the room and grab much more attention from the visiting people.
Getting The Right Tank For Flowerhorn Community Tank
One of the most common things you could do to deal with fish aggression in a community tank is by paying attention to the size of the tank you choose. Besides that you should also pay attention to keeping the water conditions stable, feeding fish the right diet in the right amount, adding hiding spots, and putting covers.
If these factors aren’t kept in mind then your fish will get aggressive. Talking about all fishes in general.
Tank Size
Compact living conditions lead to an increase of stress in your Flowerhorns. Healthy Flowerhorns reach an adult length of 12 to 16 inches (30-40 cm) and require a minimum tank size of 70 to 75 gallons. But a community tank will require up to a minimum of 160 gallons. As Flowerhorn will be sharing the tank with other fishes.
This intelligent species is immensely aggressive regarding its territory and requires enough room to explore.
Adding a second Flowerhorn will require you to double the tank size.
Combining and adding another large species with them, you will need to increase the tank size to around 200 gallons.
Check here for the best tanks for flowerhorn.
Water Parameters
Uncertain water conditions will also lead to your fish getting stressed. Stick to the following water parameters that will suit your Flowerhorn and keep them stable:
- Temperature: 80°F to 86°F (26.6°C -30°C)
- pH: 7 to 8
- Hardness: 8 to 20 dGH.
The requirement of high water temperature for Flowerhorns can make it hard to pair them with either kind of fish.
Keep in mind that stress can be caused by keeping fish around the outer edge of their thresholds, so keep the levels where they overlap.
Feeding
Lack of food or providing imbalanced nutrients can alert the fish to seek nutrition from their environment. They can eat the decoration plants, and substrates and in some cases even see their tank mates as food. So providing them with a calculated amount of food to consume is a must. Dividing the food into segments by knowing what type of food is essential to what fish is necessary.
Flowerhorns are needed to be fed three times a day. The base of their diet consists of Plant-based pellets and similar foods like bloodworms or flakes, with high-quality protein foods as supplements.
Other tank mates can have different nutritional needs or feeding times. So you need to know their own specific needs and frequency of feeding before planning to divide the food resource.
Flowerhorns can greedily grab the lion’s share of food, so you have to make sure all fish are receiving what they need. This can be done by dividing the tank into sections, each section given to a particular fish which will make it easier to feed all the different species.
Setting Up Your Community Tank For Flowerhorn
You can set up a community tank with your flowerhorn with ease. For this, check the following points.
Set Up Your Tank
Get a big tank, larger than 160 gallons ideally to keep your Flowerhorn along with other pairs. But that’s just a desirable size, you should choose the size of your tank according to the size of other fishes that you will add to your community. Tanks with thin glass should be avoided as they could break easily by your Flowerhorn. Check for leaks or cracks on the tank glass before you buy it.
Add Substrate Layer
The bottom of the tank can be covered in different layers but it is best to stick with a single layer. You can fill the flooring with gravel or substrate or sand. The finer the flooring materials the better it will look. Make sure that it covers 1/20th of the tank’s height.
- WAYBER 1 Lb/460g Natural Pink Quartz Crystal Stones Irregular Aquarium Pebbles Rock Sands for Turtle Tank/Succulent Plants/Vase Decoration (Fill 1 Cup)
- Carib Sea ACS05820 Super Natural Moonlight Sand for Aquarium, 5-Pound
- Carib Sea ACS05840 Super Naturals Crystal River Sand for Aquarium, 5-Pound
Add Decorations
Use your decorations as you like in the best way possible. Keep in mind that the ornaments should take no more than 40% of your tank space.
The decorations and ornaments that you keep will help in providing some shade or hiding place for the fishes to rest when they get tired or want shelter.
Slowly Add Water Without Ruining Your Setting
Stop pouring water when you reach about 1/20th space at the top of the tank.
Install Your Filter, Heater, Lighting, and Thermometer
Installing a good power filter is essential for the circulation and filtration of water. It will ensure that the water is kept healthy and clean and prevents that water from containing harmful chemicals and bacterias. It needs to be turned on for the entire day; do not turn it off.
A heater and a thermometer are a must for temperature control and keeping an eye on the temperature. Flowerhorn needs an averagely high temperature which might not be suitable for other fishes so keeping an eye on a base average temperature is a must.
For the community, the average susceptible temperature is around 22–27 °C (72–81 °F). So make sure that the temperature is within this range.
Lighting is also an important aspect of a community tank. Having no light in fish tanks could result in fish getting decolorized or even blind in the worst case.
Introduce Your Fish Slowly
Do not directly pour them in as soon as you bring them from the shop. Put them in the plastic bag they came in for 20 to 40 minutes.
Slowly add water to the plastic bag so the fish can become comfortable with the differences in your tank’s ph, ammonia, and nitrate levels of the tank. Do this slowly and cautiously to not send the new fishes into shock which most aquatic animals might not recover from.
Feed Fishes Twice a Day
Feed the fish twice, once in the morning and once at night. Avoid overfeeding, as this makes the fish excrete waste more often, making the water cloudy and leading to an ammonia spike that could be harmful to your pets.
The amount of food that you feed them should be enough so that it is finished in under a minute.
Make certain that you divide your pets’ diet to make sure that every pet is having their nutritional values met. Some diets include organisms like bloodworms, micro worms, brine shrimp, and high-quality pellets and flakes.
Researching the diet of the fish and other aquatic animals you want to keep in your community tank is a must to ensure they are getting what they need.
Selecting Tank Mates
Due to their personalities usually being both aggressive as well as territorial, it is quite hard to find suitable tankmates for these dormant, aggressive fishes. I’d like to list out some of the fishes with some specifications that I think will be good tank mates for the Flowerhorn cichlids.
Oscars
The minimum tank size is 55 gallons. The requirements of water temperature and ph levels are similar to that of a Flowerhorn so adding them is a good choice. Oscars are lively, interactive, and strong fishes. Just keep in mind to pair the Flowerhorn with an adult oscar as they are large, strong, and intimidating.
Add the oscar first to claim its territory, food, and lesser chances of the Flowerhorn dominating it around.
Arowana
The minimum tank size is 250 gallons. Arowana is considered a highly aggressive predator. Their daily diet usually consists of frozen meaty foods. So you should pair a younger, much smaller Arowana with a Flowerhorn so that the Arowana doesn’t consider the community tanks mate as food. It also has similar water conditions to the Flowerhorn.
Midas Cichlid
The minimum tank requirement is 60 gallons. Midas cichlids reach up to a length of 14 inches. Making them another large species of cichlid. Midas cichlids have similar diets to Flowerhorns so feeding them is not such a big issue.
Consider having male and female Midas as these fishes are highly aggressive and territorial while breeding.
Firemouth Cichlid
The minimum tank requirement is 30 gallons. Their maximum growth rate is about 12-15 cm and their water requirements meet that of the Flowerhorn cichlid. They are omnivores and love eating so feed them adequately.
They are easy-going fishes that get along with their community tank mates easily but can get a little bit aggressive if kept in a smaller tank. So keep that in mind.
Blue Acara
The minimum tank requirement is about 35 gallons. Among all the cichlid species Blue acara is considered to be more of a peaceful fish. These fishes grow up to seven inches and live a longer life.
Introducing a fully grown Blue acara in a Flowerhorn community tank would increase its rate of success. Introduce them in pairs if you can. They have similar water conditions to Flowerhorns
Green Terror Cichlid
The minimum tank requirement is about 50 gallons. The green terror cichlid is beautiful fishes that have a similar personality to the Flowerhorn. They can grow up to a size of 12 inches and live in a water temperature of 80 F.
In dirty and impure tanks these fishes tend to get aggressive. Place larger decorations for them that help to break line-of-sight for them.
Bichir
Bichir has a minimum tank requirement of 90 gallons. These fishes occupy the bottom of the tank so they do not get in the way of the Flowerhorn. Consider a larger tank if you want to keep them in a community tank as they take up adequate space
Bichir has poor eyesight so they have to rely on their sense of smell and a special organ that helps in detecting electricity in water to find their food.
These carnivores require living foods so plan for a nocturnal feeding schedule.
Iridescent Shark
Minimum Tank Size: 300 gallons
The iridescent shark may sound aggressive and dominating at first but is a peaceful catfish. These fishes can reach up to a length of 3-4 feet!. Also, they can live up to 20 years which is a lot.
If you want to tame this catfish then I recommend you to buy a very large tank, because they like to stay in groups. They are considered as schooling fishes. Iridescent sharks tend to get nervous and jumpy when left alone in the tank.
Iridescent sharks require cooler water than the Flowerhorn, with a high range of 79°F (26°C).
These fishes require special high-quality food that provides them with their nutritional needs. The food should reach the bottom of the tank so that the large fish at the bottom can have their share.
Combination of Fishes
To install a community aquarium for various fishes considering Flowerhorns to be the main attraction. I will recommend keeping 1 or 2 aggressive fishes with a few large peaceful bottom swimmers.
The aggressive smaller fishes will keep the Flowerhorns entertained and give them the feeling of competition while the larger, more peaceful fishes will help the group to behave and communicate with each other more easily.
For smaller aggressive fishes I would recommend a Firemouth, Midas, or Young Arowana and for larger peaceful fishes I will recommend Green terror, Bichir, Iridescent shark, or Plecos. A large tank of 300 to 350 gallons is essential with powerful filtration and heating equipment.
Ornaments To Keep For The Community Tank
Decorations and ornaments are basically kept in a tank for aesthetics so that the tank doesn’t look dull. But the fish acts more than that. Moreover, decorations serve the purpose of shade and hiding spots where the fishes can spend alone time and get some rest. Decorations are as important as any other thing you would add to a community tank.
Decorations
You could add small pebbles or hollow rocks that would be useful to get some shade for the smaller fish or you could even go big and add some water-themed decorations like a treasure chest, submarine, boat, and others. These types of decorations act as a safer place to get some rest and even the medium to large fish also could find themselves some shade and place to rest.
Use your imagination to keep it interesting and useful at the same time.
Dividing the Tank Into Separate Territories
Divide the territories in such a manner that every fish can get their comfort and feeding place in the tank. The lesser the interaction during feeding time the less stress and healthier they get.
I would recommend diving the tank into sections to separate the bigger fishes from the much smaller fishes. Also, provisions should be made in the tank where all the fishes can interact with each other. Keeping the balance between interacting time and feeding time is a must in every community fish tank so that every member of the tank can live happily.
What Makes a Good Tank Mate for Flowerhorn Cichlid?
A perfect tank mate for a Flowerhorn cichlid are fishes of the same or larger size, with similar tank and water parameters. It is a must for the tank mates of the Flowerhorn to be able to hold or quickly escape the cichlids’ aggressive behavior.
Only some bigger but less aggressive species can survive living with an aggressive Flowerhorn. Small fishes will end up being dinner of the Flowerhorn, especially the calm and peaceful ones.
Fish to Avoid Keeping With Flowerhorns
Smaller fishes that are less than 10 inches end up being dominated by Flowerhorns. Fishes that have this type of personality will surely become food sooner or later. if put in the same tank, especially if they are peaceful fishes. It is a must to equally match the aggression and size of the Flowerhorn.
Large peaceful fish could even get in danger with them such as goldfish, discus, and angelfish. They don’t hesitate to eat any invertebrates they find in the tank living with them.
Points to keep in Mind When Checking for Compatibility
Here are some points that can help you decide when choosing for compatibility of these fishes.
Research Before You Buy
This is one of the most important things you should do before deciding to install a community tank. If you research you can find guides and details regarding every issue on the internet. I found some sites I found useful which are AquariumFish.Net and Tropica (if you are into planted aquariums).
Don’t Just Agree With What The Pet Store Guy Has To Say About a Fish’s Compatibility.
Shoaling fish are the most common fish kept as pets, best kept in schools of 10 or more. There are some loner fishes such as Siamese fighters, best kept alone. Similarly, there are fishes such as Arowanas, Flowerhorns, and Oscars that will not bother a fish having similar size, but if that fish can fit into their mouths, they won’t think twice!
FAQ
Can flowerhorns live in a community tank?
Yes, you can keep them in a community fish tank but keep in mind that they are naturally aggressive and territorial. So pair them with a fish that is similar or of a larger size and has similar personality and requirements as a Flowerhorn cichlid.
Can we keep two Flowerhorns together?
Yes, two Flowerhorn fish can live together. Pairing them with a mate can be very good but they can also live with same-gender counterparts. Other similar fishes of the cichlid species can also be kept together.
Can we keep Flowerhorns in a planted aquarium?
For tank sizes, due to their gradually large size once full-grown, it is recommended to keep Flowerhorns in tanks of no less than 30 gallons. Breeding pairs will require a larger tank of at least 150 gallons.
Closing Thoughts
Flowerhorn cichlid tanks are undeniably attractive, interesting, and fun tanks to keep. Before you pair them up with any species proper choices and research should be done so that the tank can remain fun and happy.
Learn about every fish that you keep in the tank. What they eat, when they eat, their positive traits and negative traits, their tank and water parameters and treat all of them equally.
Keeping aggression to a minimum requires everything from stable tank conditions and adequate food to maintaining attention to the needs of every species.