food for my new flowerhorn?

[xxaprilrose]

today I bough a flowerhorn and want to get the food delivered before I go pick him up. What food do you suggest> I dont care about the size of the hump on his head but I do want something that will make him keep his colors or even help the colors. Thanks in advance!

[Fish Folk]

Okiko is one of the commonly recommended foods. Here is its ingredient list:

As you look that over, you'll see _Spirulina_, _Krill_, _fish meal_, _shrimp_, and (unspecified) fish _protein_.

Whether you go with this brand or another, use pellet foods prepared for Flowerhorns.

Now, if It were me, here's some other tips:

Set your tank up so that your Flowerhorn gets a little bit of sunlight each day. That will help develop vitamins. Play with your Flowerhorn each day to exercise it (sounds crazy, but it's highly recommended). I'd try feeding some of these ingredients more directly: Frozen Krill . . . Spirulina Flakes (Bug Bites) . . . Frozen Brine Shrimp . . . etc. I'd personally go easy on frozen blood worms. For some reason, certain fish don't do well with too many blood worms. But I don't think you can go wrong with Live Black Worms. You can even feed your Flowerhorn tiny earth worms!

Live food, as part of its diet, is excellent.

So . . . (in review) . . . I'd do this:

(1) Buy a Fowerhorn Pellet food

(2) Buy Frozen foods - Frozen Brine Shrimp, Frozen Krill, Frozen Emerald Entree

(3) Buy Bug Bites Flakes or granules with Spirulina

(4) Every few months, buy live black worms

Keep everything refrigerated.

[Sarina]

Frozen mysis, crickets, mealworms, earth worms, black worms, and a staple food like Repashy Redrum or Omega One super color cichlid pellets. Bug bites also makes an excellent cichlid pellet. Just try to stay away from anything that has too much wheat, corn, or other grain fillers in it. Meaty food is ideal, and it's especially important to switch it up so they get all the proper nutrients and they don't get bloated. I would give your flower horn the staple pellet every other day, and then meaty frozen foods in between. You could also do dried insects if you don't like the thought of doing live. Reptile stores usually have them. 

[shkote]

Depending on the size of your Flowerhorn, you can get Okiko in several different pellet sizes, and a variety of types. I feed mine Okiko Platinum, Head up and Quick Red Mark. I have always had issues with Okiko taking awhile to get in and have to order quite a bit ahead of time though and make sure to keep extra. The shipping takes awhile. Flowerhorns are messy eaters and sometimes have a hard time finding food. (Their heads kind of get in the way 🤭) Flakes may not be a good option. Mine started with tweezer feeding and moved into hand feeding without any issues. That isn't an option for everyone as some are far more aggressive than others. Mine was trained to tolerate hands. With his rotation of pellets he also enjoys krill, dried crickets, and cut up chunks of tilapia.