Flowerfish are susceptible to all the same diseases as other fish. Fortunately, these fish are tough, and less vulnerable. So you should not be fighting disease very often.

All of disease in Flowerfish requires poor water for it's start.

Fish tanks which are too small, or fish tanks without adequate water changes, or filtration are the most common cause of illness.

If a Flowerhorn appears sick, you should IMMEDIATELY check the pH of the system. The pH should be above 7.0 for best results. If the pH is lower than this, the fish won't mind much, but the bacteria in the filter will not work up to par, and nitrogen will accumulate.

To keep the pH "up" you can use Baking Soda in small quantities, crushed oyster shells, or Buff It Up.

If the pH is not out of whack, you should check the Ammonia, Nitrite, and NITRATE of the system. High nitrates is a common cause of illness in established tanks. It's immune suppressive and it causes poor healing and color in fish. Here's a test kit that has everything for all the testing you need.

If the water quality is good, it still would not hurt to change some water.

Flowerhorn should have their water changed as follows:

10% per week

20% every 2 weeks

or 30% every three weeks.

Whichever suits your schedule. If you keep up your water changes, the nitrates will be down and the growth rate will be HIGH! You will also notice that the hump on your fish grows more.

Diseases can be broken into three groups, or treated with shotgun remedies.

Bacterial infections in Flowerhorns are effectively treated with medicated food. The best one is actually for Koi and contains THREE antibiotics. It's called MediKoi. Click here.

Ich, Trichodina, Scyphidia, Epistylis, and other ciliated protozoan diseases in Flowerhorns can be treated with salt. It's easy, safe for you, and for the fish and it works! 

Link to salt article.

Flukes are a nuisance but fortunately they, too, are easy to clear. Use Praziquantel to clear these parasites. They are not rare in new Flowerhorns. Fluke Article.

Anchor Worm and Fish Lice
These parasites can be seen with the naked eye and can be cleared with Dimilin in its many forms. Anchors Away is just such a product and is found here.

The plan is to update and keep-current the Flowerfish diseases area in 4Fh.com only. This is an overview while more detail can be expected in 4Fh.com

Flowerhorns have the following advantages over other cichlids:

They are relatively gentle with unrelated species. I've kept my Flowerhorn "Bebe" with small gold barbs, Leporinus and Cory catfish.

Flowerhorns are more colorful than many more common species of cichlid.

Most importantly, no two Flowerhorns will be identical. You could own a Texas Cichlid for example, but someone else will have one just like yours.

They readily accept pelleted foods so you don't have to cannibalize goldfish or guppies. This makes your fish healthier because they don't catch diseases from their food. Easier, too, to keep a can of pellets than a fishtank of live food.

They max out at thirteen to fourteen inches so they're comfortable in the common 55 and 75 gallon tanks.

Cool: You can usually tell when they're "young" if they will be quality or not.

Judging Flowerhorns Article on Judging This young fish at right is 2.5 inches long and already shows three of the most important Flowerfish traits; the start of a hump on its nape, a robust red color and a nice row of flowers on the sides. Interestingly, in the smaller sizes, Flowerhorns aren't very aggressive to each other. The fish at right sold for under $300 - it's a double flowered Red Dragon with a great hump, red eyes, lyre shaped fins, and red in the fins like you see on champions. The fish at right sold for under $300 too. It's amazing because it combines finnage, red eyes, electric blue and the start of double flowering. It's gone, so stop drooling.