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My Parrotfish, information needed

9K views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  princilll 
#1 ·
Hi guys. How do you do?

Before all, I should say I'm really a novice at fish care, so you would excuse me for my possible mistakes :)

My brother has recently got a pair of Parrot-fish; after passing of an approximate 4 years the last time he had some fish (Not parrots, this is his first time having parrots and he's so concerned about taking care of them). Now, he's got some, or better to say that "ToO much" questions about this little lovely fish.

Since the day he decided to get these fish, he was worried about keeping them in a good and ideal environment. Here are the questions; Sorry if answer to these questions could be found in another post and I have posted them here again, or even if this section of the forum is not the appropriate place to discuss about... However, the questions are:

- Water temperature for parrots
- The reason parrots became pale after taking them home
- Are parrots born to a flowerhorn and a parrot* sterile?
- We separated them because the male parrot pecks the female. How long would it take for them to reach to their former condition in the store?
- Should there be any bowl or sth for them to hide or spawn? (I've heard they're shy :))
- Which food do you recommend for them? They eat a food I got, called: "Energy" hardly, but about frozen worms it's better.

*This fish is generally called parrot in here and is divided to "Flowerhorn, Midas, Texas,and some others. I don't know what that general parrot can refer to... Maybe it's a red parrot.



Thank you all guys for taking time and reading my questions. Big thanks in advance.
 
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#2 ·
hi there, Im no expert on Parrot fish but I do have one of these guys and hes such a character. I can answer a few of the questions for you Im sure the others will be able to fill in the gaps :)

Temp - I keep mine at 80 - 81 degrees and hes thriving hes 3 times bigger than when I first got him

Food - I give him good quality flake food every day supplemented with frozen bloodworms and the occasional Brine shrimps. Ive found he will eat just about anything tho much to my pleco's annoyance when he does a bunk with the algae wafers lol

Spieces - As youve guessed or read elswhere they are a hybrid fish, they do spawn and can have viable off spring but the majority seem to be sterile from what Ive been reading on the net. Its not known exactly what spieces of cichlids were crossed to achieve the parrot fish but the ones you mentioned are suspected to be in there somewhere.

Temperament - they can be shy yes, mine still does zip away and hide when someone new comes into the room but with me hes right at the front of the tank begging for food, and he will nip me if I put my hands into HIS tank to mess around with the decor :lol:. I have lots of hiding places, bogwood and plants in the tank and he seems to feel more secure because theres plenty of places he can retreat to when he feels like it. Currently his fave is a small terracotta plant pot on its side with some plants around it.

Pairing - Are you sure you have a male and a female ? How big is the tank ? Are there any other fish in the tank ? These all make an impact on a fishes behaviour. The fights my parrot fish gets into (chases my blue Acara around the tank) arent very serious and he cant seem to hurt anyone because of his funny shaped mouth hes more of a butter than a biter lol. Splitting them up should only be a last resort, I'd have added some hidey spots more plants etc to see if that helped with the aggression if not then I'd have split them. If its a small tank you need to get a bigger one these fish dont stay small !

Paleness - you said they became pale after you got them home ? how long have you had them a lot of parrot fish are dyed that lovely bright orange or pink or even blue and green some nasty nasty people even tattoo them with flowers and letters it could be your fish were dyed and the colour is naturally wearing off. Or is it just stress has the colour returned any since you got them settled in thier new tanks ? Also certain foods (those high in caretinoids I think its called) help bring out the orangey reds in fish maybe they were fed this in the store.

Just my thoughts and opinions based on my own little guy at home :) hope it helps some.
 
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#3 ·
Hi All :)

A news: My parrots spawned about a week ago, and I was really happy, because I thought I was going to have their babies... But Unfortunately, all eggs turned to another color like gray and parrot couple threw them away and ate them finally.

I'm making the situation ready for their next spawning. I don't even know if they are really a couple :( So I uploaded a video of then in here , and really seek for help, experts.

Which improvements do you suggest me to do?

Thanks in advance.
 
#4 ·
If they spawned once then I'd say they are a couple but as youve probably read since these are hybrid fish they might be sterile (bit like a mule, crosses between horse and donkey that cant have babies). The eggs changing colour will have been because they werent fertilized (due to inecperiance from mom or dad) and/or got infected with fungus.

Try again if its just inexperiance then you might eventually get a sucessful spawn after a few attempts. One other thing Ive read is that because of thier deformed mouth they cant pick out the dud eggs and this can lead to fungus spreading through out the lot.

Anyway wish you the best of luck :)
 
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#5 ·
Can I ask how large your tank is? It seemed little in the video but you might not have shown all of the tank. I am just wondering since Parrot fish can get pretty large.
 
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#7 ·
Yes, for sure.
Well, we asked some people's ideas about how big a tank should be for a pair of parrotfish; and finally we came to this conclusion that a tank with dimensions of: 80x45x50.

I hope you don't say it's too small, because it's really hard to get another one, you know...
 
#9 · (Edited)
Thanks friends, I'm so glad I found this forum...

Unfortunately for the second time of spawning of my parrots, the eggs all grew pale and parrots ate them again and threw some away,; it means nothing again.

I'm going to to exchange the male fish with another race; say a flowerhorn, (a barb or balloon push? = I don't know the scientific name of this parrotfish, but I've heard it's a hybrid parrot from cichlid parrot & red devil. Some say the scientific name is: Amphilophus citrinellus)? Something like this i that fish in mind: IMG
What's your suggestion?


Thanks & Have a good time :)
 
#10 ·
Thanks friends, I'm so glad I found this forum...
Unfortunately for the second time of spawning of my parrots, the eggs all grew pale and parrots ate them again and threw some away,; it means nothing again.
I'm going to to exchange the male fish with another race; say a flowerhorn, (a barb or balloon push? = I don't know the scientific name of this parrotfish, but I've heard it's a hybrid parrot from cichlid parrot & red devil. Some say the scientific name is: Amphilophus citrinellus)? Something like this i that fish in mind: IMG
What's your suggestion?
Thanks & Have a good time :)

It is possible Midas Cichlids (Amphilophus citrinellus) are in the mix for making blood parrots though many sources say Red Devils (Amphilophus Labiatus) are used and most sources say a female Severum (Heros Severus or Heros efasciatus ) is used.

Flowerhorns are also hybrid fish. There's a lot of debate about parentage, they were bred from SA and/or CA cichlids in Asian labs, as were blood parrots originally.

As with other hybridized vertebrates the males are often sterile while the females can be fertile. Everyone I've known who've had success breeding blood parrots have used a female bred with a male convict (bubblegum parrot) or severum. The bred with severum males can often often be fertile even if male and I think they're cool looking.
 
#11 ·
Thanks dear OscarLoverJim :)

Actually my brother and I came to conclusion that this male fish can not fertilize the eggs, so, we changed it with another fish I really don't know the name. Literally can be translated into sth like: Monkey proboscis or snout monkey! I know you can guess it through the picture:





Anyway, I separated them for the few first days so that male fish gets used to the new environment. After I put them together, in spite of male fish's bigger size, didn't hurt the female parrot. but the day after he had hurt the point between her nose hole.

So separated them again and now I see that they both peck at each other on the separative glasses!
When do you suggest me to put them back together or what's the point for this pecking?

Thanks a lot.
 
#12 ·
So separated them again and now I see that they both peck at each other on the separative glasses! When do you suggest me to put them back together or what's the point for this pecking? Thanks a lot.
I'm not sure you'll be able to. I don't know if they'll eventually establish a pecking order and not actually hurt each other but it seems they don't like each other much through the glass.
 
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