Flowerhorn cichlid

Hybrid fish

Flowerhorn cichlids are ornamental aquarium fish noted for their vivid colors and the distinctively shaped heads for which they are named. Their head protuberance is formally called a nuchal hump. Like blood parrot cichlids, they are hybrids that exist in the wild only because of their release. Flowerhorns first emerged for sale on the aquarium market in Malaysia in the late 1990s and soon became popular in many countries in Asia. They are commonly kept by hobbyists in the US, Asia, and Europe. Numerous cast off flowerhorns have been released to the wild, especially in Singapore and Malaysia, where they have become an invasive pest animal. Their importation is banned in Australia.

Flowerhorn breeding dates to 1993. Unreliable source: certain=yes Taiwanese and Malaysian peoples admired fish with protruding heads, known as 'kaloi' or 'warships', found in the western part of the nation. The slightly protruding forehead and long tail of cichlids were prized in Taiwanese society as bringing luck in geomancy. By 1994, red devil cichlids (typically Amphilophus labiatus) and trimac cichlids (A. trimaculatus) had been imported from Central America to Malaysia and the hybrid blood parrot cichlid had been imported from Taiwan to Malaysia. These fish were then bred together, marking the birth of the flowerhorn.

When luohans were first imported to the US, there were only two varieties of these fish for distribution: the flowerhorn and the golden base. Flowerhorn cichlids are subject to several diseases, including hole in head disease, "ich", and digestive blockages.