Flowerhorns are one of the world’s most exhilarating cichlids, with a unique appearance and vibrant color not found in other fish. That being said, flowerhorns are quite large fish. What size do you think flowerhorn fish can grow? Can you guess? And is there any solution to increase their growth? Let’s have a look!
Well, flowerhorns are one large aquarium fish with a unique appearance and body structure. Flowerhorns can range from 6 inches to 16 inches in size. Normally, male flowerhorns grow up to 12 inches. However, female flowerhorns are smaller than male flowerhorns. Kamfas are known to be the largest ones.
Apart from this, there is a variety of short body flowerhorn known as Bonsai or Balloon flowerhorns that grows up to 6’’ in total length.
According to the size of the flowerhorn, you need to plan their tank setup carefully. This not only means tank size only determines their growth. Apart from the tank size, the food, and the environment in which they live also matter as well.
Flowerhorn Size Chart
| Flower horn Age | Flower horn Size |
| 1 month | 0.6 – 1 inch |
| 2 months | 1.5 – 2 inches |
| 3 months | 2.5 – 3 inches |
| 4 months | 3.8 – 4 inches |
| 5 months | 4.8 – 5 inches |
| 6 months | 5.5 – 6 inches |
| 12 months | 6 – 7 inches |
Normally, flowerhorns achieve their full size within 12-18 months. Some flowerhorns can achieve full size in 10 months. However, it can take approximately two weeks as well. Since the flowerhorns vary in terms of size, their dramatic difference in size is considerable. The size of the flowerhorn is affected by multiple factors.
The environment it gets and the diet you provide have a great effect on the size of the flowerhorn. These are controllable factors. Genetics plays a huge role in the size of your flowerhorn. Most of the factors affecting the size of the flowerhorn are uncontrollable.
Factors Influencing Flowerhorn’s Maximum Size
Flowerhorn is known to be a big fish along with its appearance and body structure. But does every flowerhorn cichlid grow big? No, definitely not. But why do flowerhorns differ in size? Let’s have a look at different factors that contribute to the size and growth of flowerhorn.
Genetics
Various strains of flowerhorns are paired as a result of selective breeding that expands the breeding pool. Each strain comes with unique characteristics with different sizes and looks. You know that flowerhorn cichlids are the breeding that came from the hybrid of different cichlids species.
King Kamfa is the largest flowerhorn cichlid that reaches the size of 16 inches at maturity. The second large variety of flowerhorn cichlid is the Rose Queen Flowerhorn which has a size of 13-14 inches. Red Ingot Flowerhorns are the next strains that grow quite large. Smaller flowerhorn cichlids grow up to 6-8 inches in size. Regardless of any flowerhorn strains, males are larger than female flowerhorns.
You should be aware of the tank size while setting up your flowerhorn fish. Flowerhorns need more spaces with enough hiding spots as well.
Water Condition
Flowerhorns are ectothermic which means that their body temperature fluctuates and is directly influenced by the temperature of their environment. If the water and environmental parameters fluctuate, then flowerhorns can suffer from growth rate and size.
When the ambient temperature drops, the flowerhorn’s internal body temperature also drops, which directly hampers the flowerhorn’s metabolism. Finding the perfect medium is of vital importance because the temperature of the water not only affects its metabolism but also influences factors such as dissolved oxygen and pH.
In perfect water parameters, flowerhorns are active and experience a greater rate of growth. Optimizing the water parameters accelerated the larger growth of your flowerhorn. Most importantly, temperature plays a great role here.
Food
Food determines growth. Flowerhorns are omnivorous and they require 40% protein in their diet. Protein helps flowerhorn to grow large and healthy. You can feed your flowerhorns prepared food, live food, frozen food, or grocery store foods. Feed flakes to your fish.
However, for medium to large flowerhorns flakes are not enough. Try feeding pellets. Foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals like salmon, crustacean meat, and herring flesh should be fed.
For maximum and healthy growth, flowerhorn should be given nutritious and adequate amounts of food.
Some of the food you can try for your flowerhorn is:
- Hikari Flowerhorn Fish Food
- OKIKO flowerhorn Cichlid Fish
- Fluval A6581 Bug Bites Cichlid Pellets
- Amzey Dries Shrimp Fish Foods
- Appetizing Shrimp Mealworms
- Tetra Jumbokrill Jumbo Shrimp
- Ocean Pellets Humpy Xo Flowerhorn Food
Enough space
As flowerhorns are quite active fish, they need a lot of space to grow. For keeping a single flowerhorn, 70 gallons of water is the best. Flowerhorns need a lot of space to feel comfortable and calm. Moreover, the flowerhorn fry also needs enough space as they grow. More space speeds up their muscle growth resulting in faster growth.
Speed Up Flowerhorn Fry Growth
Do you want to boost your flowerhorn’s growth? Well, this can be a big challenge for you. But considering the following, you can get a quick guide to this.
Quality Water Conditions
Water quality has a great impact on flowerhorn’s health. Providing the right water parameter is an addition to boosting the flowerhorn’s growth. Water conditions have more impact on fry than the adults.
If you are keeping several fries in the same tank, you need to perform water changes every 4-5 days. Change the water partially and clean the tank regularly as well to avoid algae formation and eliminate fish waste.
Filter plays a great role in cleaning the water and retaining the optimal living conditions. If you are keeping a lot of fries in the same tank, not performing timely water changes may cause your fry to suffer. Hence, I recommend a 100 fries to 50-gallon tank ratio.
Role Of Temperature
Flowerhorn needs an adequate temperature of 78°-85°F. To boost the metabolism and growth of flowerhorn fry, the environmental temperature of 82°-84°F will be better. The right temperature helps the flowerhorn to remain active. Due to the proper temperature, the flowerhorn will have faster growth and can reach its maximum size.
How to determine when you need to perform partial water changes?
You can know the time for partial water changes when the fry begins to breathe near the surface. At this point pH and ammonia levels are already very bad. However, don’t wait for this to happen.
Rather manage a scheduler for timely water changes. Giving proper water parameters will increase the growth rate of your flowerhorn cichlid.
Here is how you can change the water in the flowerhorn tank.
Population Density
Tank size is not always an important factor you need to consider. Rather focus on the population of fries you keep in a single tank. I recommend you to use a 1-inch fry per 50 gallons of water to 100 ratios. You also need to separate the fast growers and slow growers, otherwise the fast growers will bully the weaker ones.
Note that not all high-quality flowerhorns are fast growers. So you really need to protect the slow-growing flowerhorns as well.
Enough Space
Space affects the growth of flowerhorn. More space, less competition between the flowerhorns.
As flowerhorns are active cichlids, they need a lot of space to swim. I recommend you to have 90 to 100 gallons for a single fish. You can also get away with 70 gallons for small and medium-sized flowerhorns up to 10-12 inches.
Along with the adults, the fry also needs maximum space for their healthy and fast growth. Fries will have fast muscle growth if they get to swim in a larger area.
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Making Flowerhorn Hump Size Bigger
Flowerhorn fish is mostly in demand due to its color and hump. It is believed that the bigger the head, the more luck will be. I have seen many owners selling their flowerhorn due to the small hump.
The foremost point is tank size. If you keep them in a small tank, they will not get enough space to grow. Due to this, their growth will stop, which will affect the head growth too. To grow the hump size, you will need a minimum of a 70-gallon tank.
Head size also depends on the aggressiveness of the flowerhorn. Aggressiveness not only helps in growing the head of your flowerhorn but will also increase the color.
How to increase aggressiveness in a flowerhorn?
Flowerhorn aggressiveness can be increased simply by placing a mirror in front of your flowerhorn tank. When they see the mirror, they assume their reflection to be another flowerhorn and start attacking.
You will notice your flowerhorn turning red and slightly increasing in the hump size too. Remove the mirror after 15 minutes.
The water quality and the diet is also the most important part that helps to increase the hump size.
Conclusion
Flowerhorns have a variety of strains. They are all different in size mainly according to genetics. Size mostly depends on genetics. But it also depends on several other factors.
The healthy growth of the flowerhorn cichlid depends on overall health. Providing your flowerhorn with a balanced and nutritional diet maximizes its growth. Also, keep the temperature around 78°-85°F. Give them enough space and hiding spots.
Stressed or unhappy flowerhorn may experience stunted growth and risk of diseases.
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ)
Can I make my flowerhorn grow faster?
If you are wondering how to increase the growth of your flowerhorn, there is not any instinct method that magically speeds up the growth. Growth speed and size are followed in a way that is dictated by genetics. One best way is to take proper care of them thereby providing the best environment and food for their growth needs.
Simply choose a flowerhorn cichlid from a larger strain if you want a larger size flowerhorn. Of course, you need to give them all they require for healthy and faster growth. They represent a larger commitment and they are definitely worth it.
Hence, providing them with proper care and the environment will be a huge investment for you.
How fast do flowerhorn grow?
Healthy flowerhorns gain an inch or more every month. Usually, flowerhorns reach their maximum size in about a year from hatching. Among the variety of flowerhorn cichlids, Red Ingot and Red Mammon grow at an even faster pace. Once a year of faster growth is completed, they grow at a considerably slower rate.
Flowerhorn will gain size up to the time of 18-24 months. You can expect them to grow to a maximum size of 2 inches in this time. Once they have completed maturity, they stop gaining their size.
Does food affect the size of the flowerhorn?
Providing the flowerhorn nutritious food, especially at the fry stage helps them for healthy growth. Foods that are used to increase hump growth provide their size growth as well. The most needed ingredient for your flowerhorn is protein.
Foods like pellets, shrimp, mealworms, bloodworms, and smaller feeder fish are great sources of protein. Some hobbyists use power feeding to speed up the growth by feeding in larger amounts than usual. But, power feeding may have a negative impact on the flowerhorn and may cause sickness.
