We've Got A New Animal Family Member

[Jill]

I wanted to share my new "baby" with you all! His name is "Roscoe" and he is a fish! Yes, a fish. Harvey and I got back into aquariums last summer and enjoy the hobby a lot. Ever since we saw pictures and videos of flowerhorn cichlids, we've wanted one. However, they are not very common and I have had mixed results when it comes to shipping fish.

Last week, though, I heard about a pet shop about an hour and a half from us that turned out had flowerhorns. I got the tank all ready for him (involved moving fish around) and yesterday, we went to look and hoped to find one we liked and we found him!

Flowerhorns are a hybrid fish and get to be around 12". They should live about 10 years and of course, I hope Roscoe lives at least that long. Right now, Roscoe is only about the size of a business card but should grow quickly in his tank (supremely filtered and aerated). We got all kinds of foods for him to eat, too, including some made specifically for flowerhorns.

I'm already actually attached to Roscoe. Probably part of that is because I'd wanted a flowerhorn for awhile now, but also, he just is so fun to watch as has been exploring his tank (which is massive for him given his current size) and he pays a lot of attention to what's going on in the room around him. They're highly aggressive fish and are best kept in tanks by themselves. I love our aquariums and enjoy the fishkeeping so much, but I do not generally get "attached" to most fish but when it comes to Roscoe, our blood parrot cichlids, and our fat fancy goldfish, it's hard not to. They really do interact with you and I end up getting attached.

Thanks for looking at Roscoe!!!

When he's grown up, I think he'll resemble this fish:

 

[loveminis]

Cool Jill !!

 

[Jill]

Thanks you two

I was so excited to find there was a place we could go in person and pick a flowerhorn out. I had only found one other store close enough to us that had them, and they were not very pretty and $1,200... I didn't want one that badly!!! But am pretty partial to Mr. Roscoe already. He's got a lot of personality!!!

 

[disneyhorse]

Very cool!

At first I scrolled down and saw Roscoe... I thought "huh, she's all excited about that?" until I scrolled down a bit more and saw what he'd look like as an adult. Wow! ha ha...

I only have a tiny 10 gallon aquarium... just four baby black mollies and a few fancy guppy fry that I just traded for (had 15 black molly babies to start with!)

When you say "hybrid" do you mean hybrid between two colors of cichlid, or two different kinds of fish? I'm not a fan of cichlids but I know lots of people are! I have seen some electric blue ones that are very pretty... but I don't think they'd be happy in ten gallons.

Enjoy him!

Andrea

 

[Tab]

This is a cool cichlid. I once had 3 African Jeweled Cichlids in a 10 gallon tank. They were absolutely beautiful fish. The two paired off and beat the crap out of the third. They had two separate spawns of fry. I WISH I had pictures! The first spawn resulted in very healthy fry, the second wasn't so healthy. I was a kid and I think I started to neglect the tank and that is why the second batch wasn't as healthy. I used to love to feel the baby fish nibbling on my fingers. Good times.

 

[Jill]

Thanks, Andrea and Tab! We love cichlids. We have blood parrot cichlids in a different tank and they're so cool. We used to have mbuna's but I got very tired of them... so now we have Roscoe and I've wanted a flowerhorn for so long. I'm sure I won't get tired of him.

Andrea, your post made me laugh! Yes, with Roscoe, it's all about what he will grow to be. Right now, he looks like a little grey and pink fish... not such a huge deal but he will become really an interesting kind and legend says they bring good luck, too!

It's neat that both of H and my favorite types of cichlids, blood parrots and flowerhorns, are man made hybrids. They are so different than the other tropical fish we have and are very interactive. The fancy goldfish are also interactive but not nearly as intelligent as far as I can tell. Still fun, though

PS Roscoe already recognizes his food. He eats this special food made just for Flowerhorns (probably a hype but...). I hold the container to the glass and he swims up to the top of the tank looking for it to rain food. Pretty smart since he's only been eating it since Saturday evening.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

Congrats Jill! He's very cool and I think it's neat how he pays attention to what is going on in the room he's in. Isn't the animal (ok, fish) world amazing?

 

[Jill]

Thanks, Parmela! Roscoe really is becoming a household pet. Even Watson's jealous of him!!! He could care less about the other fish but thinks his mom should stop paying so much attention to Roscoe. He's noticably bigger, I'm sure now, in just a few days. I'm planning to take pictures of him each week (yeah, I know... 99.9% of people do not care about a fish). These are just such interesting and personable fish. It's hard to explain unless you've interacted with one.

 

[user 488]

Jill, isn't this the same kind of fish that ML has that she is so attached too? His name is Barney? ML?

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

Very cool Jill! How exciting to watch him grow too! All your tank photos and fish talk, you make me want to start up my own tank! When I was a kid my mom & brother really got into tropical fish, they were raising Molly's, fancy-tail Guppies, and one other kind that slips my mind. We had a tank in almost every room to raise the babies, and they sold them back to the pet store. I loved the angelfish, we would train them to eat bloodworms from a dropper, it was a lot of fun.

One of the families I worked for years ago had a salt water tank, they had a puffer fish, his name slips my mind now. He was like a dog, he would follow you around the tank and the way he swam it looked like he was wagging his tail.

 

[Jill]

Kim, I bet you'd love having an aquarium! They're so much fun

Carol, ML's fish that she is attached to is a blood parrot cichlid. Her's is named Barney

We do have some of them and I love them. They look like living cartoon characters

 

[Jill]

Mary Lou, those blood parrots really do love people!!! I'm looking over at mine now and you know it -- they are looking right back at me. But, hey... Maybe I'm a goddess to them??? I can make it rain food, you know

 

[user 488]

I know people must feel we are crazy Jill.. But the Blood Parrots do have such a funny way about them and love their human friends more then their fish friends.. really!!

I don't think you are crazy at all! I had a large clown trigger in one of my salt water tanks just like your Barney. Raised him from a baby. When I was getting ready to move here he went with his buddies to a new home. I cried like a baby. I knew they would never make a move like this one successfully.

 

[lildrummer]

Thanks you two <img src="http://www.miniaturehorsetalk.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> I was so excited to find there was a place we could go in person and pick a flowerhorn out. I had only found one other store close enough to us that had them, and they were not very pretty and $1,200... I didn't want one <i>that</i> badly!!! But am pretty partial to Mr. Roscoe already. He's got a lot of personality!!!

cool fish and nice pics, thanks

Lildrummer