Wednesday, June 16, 2004

My fish experience

I started having an aquarium last February when a friend gave me a luo-han, or what the petshop fondly calls the flowerhorn, sometime last February, 2004. I bought everything right away on the spot, the 15-gallons aquarium, pebbles, overhead tank filter and overhead light. My very first flowerhorn was almost 2-3 inches long his strain was short-bodied kamfa. My family were amused when they saw it over the aquarium, and they even named it "Prince" since its aquarium filled tank sits alone inside in one corner of our house. Well, eventually, we have to move out the aquarium outside since our family believes in feng-shui, so after 3 days he has to move out of the house and place him beside the entrance door to the house. Well, from what I have learned through the different sites I went through, flowerhorns are good luck fish, and the Chinese believes in it, and since I have somewhat a Chinese blood in me, I do as well. Then I finally found myself so engrossed over flowerhorns that I started to look for petshop in the mall and grooves over the flowerhorn fishes they might have. Actually, I bought 4 flowerhorns in Bio-Research at the Southmall, Las Pinas, which cost me two hundred pesos. The guy in charge there told me that the strain of this flowerhorn were all pearl and they're not quite sure what kind of pearl flowerhorns because they mixed the fries (that's what you call the flowerhorns when they are little) in one tank. So what the heck, I still want them since I want to feel how to breed flowerhorns.

Two weeks have passed, and everything went well. My cousin hand me over a much bigger aquarium, which house 35 galllons of water but I have to fix the broken glass on the side of it, so I grab it and have it fixed. When I finally got it, I immediately filled it with water, and transferred all the flowerhorns including "Prince" in the tank. I gave my 15-gallon aquarium to my brother and the other 2 flowerhorns I bought from Bio-Research. In addition, I also bought 2 flowerhorns for two hundred pesos in a petshop within our village. After a day or so, each one begins to die. It was as if like having an epidemia inside the aquarium, one by one they started to die including "Prince". When the last one fall, that is after two days I have the big aquarium, I have realized that maybe the water was contaminated, because the aquarium may not have been put under the sun to dry up the solvent used to mend glasses. So I decided to hold off buying flowerhorns for awhile, and put the aquarium under the sun to dry up for almost 2-3 days.

Then I found this new petshop in our village, stopped over to browse the flowerhorns that sits on their big aquariums. I was so fascinated that I started to ask the price of each one. Then I picked the one with a good color and ask for a 50% discount which to my amazement, they give in without hesitation. It was quite big and its counterpart almost cost eight hundred pesos at most. So I grabbed it and paid for it, and that I have to set up again my aquarium. He was my first again, his strain was desert kingdom crossed breed with pearl. After a day, I went to fitc (fish in the big city in BF Homes Paranaque) and bought a red mercury. When I arrived home, I let the two flowerhorns joined in one tank without a divider and that was my biggest mistake. Actually, flowerhorns are aggressive fish and having another fish in their environment is not advisable. As the Flower Horn is from the South American Cichlid family, this fish is very territorial. But I believe in the power of camaraderie, I say it will be good if he will have somebody to play with inside the aquarium. Besides, the red general is so active since it is still small and that he may overrun the bigger luohan if it ever run to bite him and anyway, I put big blocks of stone in there for the purpose of hiding. But alas, in the morning when I checked on it, the red general looks pale already and it seems like he has fin roth, maybe due to excessive bites on his fins. So I took him out of the tank and placed him in a bottle. I bought an aquatic medicine that makes the water yellow, but still to no avail. The fish had to die eventually. But that did not stop me for putting another fish to house with this fella, so I went back to the petshop where I originally bought the fish and spotted another fish which looks like a female breed to me but of the same size with what I have. And when the store owner gave me another big discount on the fish and assured me that this luohan is a sibling of what I have, I immediately bought it and house it with him. Thinking that he may not fight with this one coz its a family and I strongly believe that "no fish in an aquarium" (Actually, I applied the here the quotation "no man in an island" which means no one can live alone). Well, I guess it differs a lot from an amphibian, so the next day, I found this newly bought fish dead in the aquarium. So I got a little eerie, did I got myself a killer fish or what. Everything I put in him dies, and it looks like this fellow is laughing off at me.

Then I went to Cartimar in Pasay with my brothers and sister. We went to see the flowerhorns they showcase in their big tanks. I spotted a not really nice flowerhorn but I am sure it is fine. Anyway, the store really sell good breeds of fowerhorns and they say that the strain is midnight beauty. I let my brother take care of it for awhile as I have bitten out of my luck with the fish I house in my tank, he might just kill it again and I can't afford to loose another fish to him. When I finally got a divider for my aquarium after a week, that is when I retrieved back my fish from my brother. It went well since I bought the divider, as if everything have been in order. It has been almost two months no dilemna whatsoever. The midnight beauty fish I bought from Cartimar grew really fast and I will be posting here its picture. As for my killer fish, I have to give it away to my brother and had it exchange with another flowerhorn whom I bought from Bio-Research. My brother is a good breeder of fish coz the two flowerhorns I gave him grew well and now I have to take it back from him, my apology to my brother.

Click here to see midnight beauty two months ago



Click here to see its current picture



I would like to share this experience to all my friends out there who are fond of aquatic animals. You have the share of the story.