flower horns

The intentional creation of hybrids has a number of negative aspects:

1. "Money" is more important than the fish's health. Sadly with the
immense pressure on marketers to create "something new" for the insatiable
flowerhorn demand by consumers, many have resorted to cosmetic/surgical
mutilation of fishes. The removal of the fishes fins or tail is not
uncommon, from the minimal amount of scar tissue surrounding the removed
appendage it must be assumed that this is undertaken when the fish are still
developing (under 1 cm). This process must, by its nature, be devastating on
the fishes health, and it is reasonable to assume that many fishes do not
survive to adulthood. Good flowerhorns are judged not only by color or
whether markings on the side of the body resemble Chinese characters for
luck - but also on the roundness of the body. This has led to many people
causing intentional damage to the fishes spine in order to stunt its growth
elongate growth. There is also an issue of "quality of life" to be
considered - hybrid cichlids, such as the red blood parrot, have deformed
jaws and swim bladder problems. Cichlids are renowned for high intelligence
and complex behavioral patterns, such that gross anatomical deformities,
impinge on the normal behaviors of the fish.

Philosophical and ethical concerns. Many hobbyists, the authors included,
dislike hybrids because their deliberate creation demonstrates a certain
amount arrogance regarding the idea that we can improve upon natural beauty.
There are currently over 1500 species of cichlids in the wild - this is a
large amount of naturally occurring diversity and it seems unnecessary to go
creating hybrids just because it can be done. This natural diversity is
fundamental to the attraction most people have for the cichlid keeping
hobby, the creation of designer cichlids, or as Ron Coleman calls them
"Franken-fish", detract from the natural diversity present in this
assemblage of fishes.

Identification.
The diversity of cichlid species is such that identification is a
fundamentally difficult thing at the best of times. The example to the right
features two pictures, the first is the midas cichlid (red devil) A.
citrinellus, the second picture shows a flowerhorn known to the flowerhorn
keepers as the "jing kang". It is undoubtedly a hybrid as some jing kang
have body patterning similar to A. trimaculatus. The similarity between the
two fish is remarkable and it illustrates how flowerhorns could be mistaken
for species cichlids. Of some concern to those keeping flowerhorns should
also be the higher price tag associated with a "jing kang". While a midas
cichlid juvenile costs $5 - 15 (AUD), the "jing kang" fetches very high
prices in excess of $50 (AUD), this illustrates the great effect of the
flowerhorn marketing machine.

Dangers of hybridization:
Perhaps of most concern is the way hybrid cichlids like the flowerhorn could
be mistakenly identified as "pure" cichlid species. It is conceivable that
poor quality flowerhorns, could be mistaken for cichlids such as A.
trimaculatus or A. citrinellus and bred back with the original species. This
has already occurred in cichlids such as V. synspilus, V. maculicauda and V.
bimaculatus and this only due to accidental hybridisation by hobbyists, with
the deliberate large scale production of hundreds of thousands of hybrids
the risk to the hobby is increased many times over.

Re-introduction of cichlids in the hobby into natural settings. Although
the re-introduction of cichlids from the cichlid keeping hobby into the wild
is not standard practice at the present time with the threat to many
ecosystems globally the cichlid hobby may provide future sources of
endangered fish for re-introduction into the wild. It is therefore important
that all cichlid keepers are aware that the fish we maintain in our aquaria
are potentially endangered in the wild, due to a variety of factors eg:
competition from other species such as the Nile Perch and urban development.
In this awareness it is important to strive - wherever possible, to maintain
cichlids in our aquariums as they exist in the wild.

So why do people keep hybrid fish?

A one word answer applies he marketing.

The marketers pushing the flowerhorn will tell you: The value of the
Flower Horn is from the "nuchal hump" on its head, the pearl dots on its
body, the redness of its fins and body and the roundness of the body on the
whole.

There is a suggestion that a good quality flowerhorn will bring luck and
prosperity to the owner via feng shui.

It is noteworthy though that many pure species have nuchal humps, many of
these "hump-headed" pure species also have dots on the body and red/bright
colouration. In reality, flowerhorns offer very little extra in terms of
the aesthetic qualities over the "pure species" fish and seem to offer very
many more negative aspects.

Q: So why do the marketers want you to buy a flowerhorn?

A: So it can bring luck and fortune to them - at your monetary loss. Pure
species cichlasomines are much less expensive and have all the luck &
prosperity bringing power of the flowerhorn.

So what can we do?

Don't buy flowerhorns, red blood parrots or other hybrid cichlids. When you
buy these fish are making the unscrupulous marketers of these fish - richer
and the cichlid hobby poorer.

Don't buy any African cichlids from tanks that read: Assorted cichlids,
assorted peacocks, assorted mbuna etc.

When you do buy a cichlid, any cichlid - make sure you know what you are
buying before you buy it. Do a bit of reading on the net or in the
literature on the requirements of the fish you are thinking of purchasing.


--
You're never too old to have a happy childhood.