Is it normal for my flower horn to be scared of me?

well, he gets nervous when i go near my flower horn, and i wonder how i will be able to make him follow my finger outside the aquarium glass. ive seen flower horns doing that

Is it normal for my flower horn to be scared of me?
hi! first, welcome to the world of the interestingly unpredictable flowerhorn.





i suppose you have just acquired your fish. i assure you its perfectly normal for the fish to be stressed on its new environment and that's manifested by the fish looking nervous when someone gets near the tank. the fish timidly swims away and stays in the corner or wherever they can hide.





dont worry. thats expected and nothing is wrong with that.





try doing these:


1. get near the tank as often as you can but dont make sudden movements so as not to startle the fish.





2. dont feed the fish for a day then the next morning, give small amounts of food. if he does not eat after 5 minutes, remove the food you gave and feed him again in the afternoon. do that again and again until your fish eats what you give him. that would make your fish associate you with food and this would greatly make him comfortable with your presence. later you would notice that the fish will get excited whenever you are near his tank.





3. when a fish follows finger or hand movements, it does not mean the fish wants to play. it sees the hand as an intruder, flowerhorns are territorial fish. they defend their territory and that is why it is very hard to find 2 or more adult flowerhorns peacefully sharing a tank. in the flowerhorn community, we call this trait 'deportment'. fish with better deportment are priced higher. this trait however comes naturally and all you have to do is to wait for the fish to exhibit this behavior.





for more information on flowerhorns and for more advises from those who have been into flowerhorn fishkeeping for a long time, i invite you to visit www.palhs.com. its a forum based in the philippines which primarily talks about arowana and louhan or flowerhorn. other fishes like discus, betta and tiger fishes are also discussed. its a bilingual forum, meaning english and filipino are used so it would be a good idea to give advise that you only speak and understand english so those who would answer your queries do so in the language you understand. you can be a member of the forum for free.





i hope i have been of help. good luck and happy fishkeeping!
Reply:Sometimes fish behave in this manner when the water conditions are deteriorating. Check for ammonia and Nitrite.
Reply:how old is ur flowerhorn and since when have u had him ???


ok......


young flowerhorns( under 5 inches) is generally like any oyher young fish- nervous ... however ... once its around 4 inches and uve had him for about a month, he definitely will respond.........



credot siosse