Hallo

It's certainly not difficult to keep a Hualorhan in a home aquarium. In fact, as the Hualorhan comes from the Cichlid family of fish, it is actually quite hardy and needs little attention.

Why then do I get some e-mails from Hualorhan enthusiasts requesting advice on how to handle ailments affecting the Hualorhan?

Most aquarium problems are confined to two areas:

1. feeding of the fish

2. maintenance of the aquarium

It is important not to overfeed the fish. Just how do we know we are overfeeding the fish? Very simple, we are overfeeding the fish when food pellets or strands of blood worms remain uneaten after about five minutes.

There are two approaches here. 1. remove the uneaten food and feed later  2. leave the uneaten food, especially the pellets, so as to train your pet Hualorhan to eat all that is given to him. It is better to go for option 2. 

Get your Hualorhan to understand that as long as there are uneaten pellets of food in the aquarium, he gets no more food. Point to the uneaten pellets whenever you are next to the tank. The Hualorhan is a very intelligent creature and he understands your message quickly so he will most likely follow the direction of your finger and gobble the remaining pellets. (When training the Hualorhan, put him on pellets diet; it's easier to train him this way)

For a feeding schedule, I recommend the following:

Between 6 and 8am daily: feed pellets sparingly (say about 20 pellets); leave them floating in the tank and do not feed anymore.

Between 12pm and 2pm: Feed pellets, followed by blood worms. (Frozen Bloodworms are cut into roughly 1 sq cm size) Give as much bloodworms as the fish will eat every ten minutes for about half an hour. If you can't be home to do this, then let him skip lunch. Avoid hand feeding him (putting your hand into the water) as you may inadvertently be wearing some ointment, or have just washed your hands with detergent. This can be disastrous to the fish!

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