My Blood Parrot Cichlid AKA KissyFish

a reply to: Advantage

Ah, but they do have teeth. They're really set back in their mouths and pretty useless, but they do have them lol.

My daughter used to like putting her hand in as they were "kissing" her, so I know what you mean by calling them kissyfish lol.

originally posted by: TerryDon79
a reply to: Advantage

Ah, but they do have teeth. They're really set back in their mouths and pretty useless, but they do have them lol.

My daughter used to like putting her hand in as they were "kissing" her, so I know what you mean by calling them kissyfish lol.

Hmm that could be why he sometimes wants my fingers.. in his mouth. LOL! Very cool! Thanks for telling me some stuff about them. Im very excited for him to get into this new tank!! Its somewhat smaller, but I can keep it in the living room and watch him. WHen I go in the critter room they all think its feeding time. The Usambara is like a horrifying jack in the box.. and I dont lke to tease that one! LOL!

a reply to: Advantage

My fish room was my old living room. 1 5ft, 2 4ft, 2 3ft, 4 2ft and 4 1ft tanks. Never needed a TV in that room lol.

What's an usambara?

ive been into keeping cichlids for about 20 years. a few things about the parrot

they are a hybrid so not found in nature. they are a cross between a red devil/midas and a severum. you can google those and when you see both those fish you will immediately see how the parrot comes from them.

you should feed him a food that sinks instead of floats at the top. see how his mouth is shaped? its not as easy for him to turn up to the surface and snatch food. not that he cant. he can and he will. its just more suited to his shape.

he will eat by crushing the food with muscles in his throat.

you can see these at the stores with pretty blue, pink, or green colors. stay away from them as it is artificial. those are dyed and/or fed hormones to get the color.

enjoy the fish. he will get good sized but he grows very slow

originally posted by: TerryDon79
a reply to: Advantage

My fish room was my old living room. 1 5ft, 2 4ft, 2 3ft, 4 2ft and 4 1ft tanks. Never needed a TV in that room lol.

What's an usambara?

A type of tarantula. Its really a Pterinochilus Murinus. Theyre crazy.. seriously. They call them OBT.. orange bitey thing!

a reply to: Advantage

Yeah, you can keep that thing away from me. Same as snakes. Can't stand em.

originally posted by: TinySickTears
ive been into keeping cichlids for about 20 years. a few things about the parrot

they are a hybrid so not found in nature. they are a cross between a red devil/midas and a severum. you can google those and when you see both those fish you will immediately see how the parrot comes from them.

you should feed him a food that sinks instead of floats at the top. see how his mouth is shaped? its not as easy for him to turn up to the surface and snatch food. not that he cant. he can and he will. its just more suited to his shape.

he will eat by crushing the food with muscles in his throat.

you can see these at the stores with pretty blue, pink, or green colors. stay away from them as it is artificial. those are dyed and/or fed hormones to get the color.

enjoy the fish. he will get good sized but he grows very slow

Wow! Thanks! Yes, I have sinking pellets and I feed him treats of brine shrimp by hand. I have some live brine shrimp reasy now, so Ill try them with him as well.
Yes, the guy at the store warned me from the unnatural colored ones too.

originally posted by: TerryDon79
a reply to: Advantage

Yeah, you can keep that thing away from me. Same as snakes. Can't stand em.

I breed arachnids.
Being goofy Ive been bitten by a few, but only systemic effects from the ornamentals from India... this Usambara just keeps biting though. Its a fierce booger.

a reply to: Advantage

ill tell you what to get them and they will love it. all you cichlids will.
frozen bloodworms and/or frozen mosquito larvae.
little cubes. they have variety packs that come with both of those as well as krill and brine shrimp.

a reply to: Advantage

He'll be all right so long as you don't try to mix him up with anything other than his own kind. Because of the hybridizing, he's a bit malformed, so he'll have trouble coping with other fish that share his more aggressive personality traits and the gentler fish that won't bother him, he'll tend to beat to death because it's in his nature being cichlid-style territorial.

So about the only tankmates that he'll be able to live with will be another blood parrot, but that's not always a bad thing.

Blood parrots aren't my thing personally. I tend to like more natural fish, but I'm not an anti-blood parrot crusader either unless you got one that was hand dyed which is a cruel and inhumane practice.

a reply to: Advantage

As you can see by my name, I am into fish.
All South and Central American cichlids are smart and interested in what is going on inside/outside the tank. Blood parrots are "manmade". But that is not their fault! They need homes and love like any other fish. Yes, love. They know when they are cared for and spoken to. My daughter's oscar cichlids would play ball. She would throw a ping pong ball into the tank and they would pop it back out TOWARD her.

Consider a couple buddies and eventually a much larger tank for the fish. Also, every fish needs hiding spots. I have plants, rocks, driftwood, terra cotta flower pots, and other debris that the fish can hide in and behind. Also, lighting. Give the fish darkness at night. A grow light or a full spectrum is very good for him. Buddies can include corydoras, plectostomas, black ruby barbs, maybe white clouds.

Give me a holler any time if you need help.

a reply to: TinySickTears

star! good advice!

originally posted by: TinySickTears
a reply to: Advantage

ill tell you what to get them and they will love it. all you cichlids will.
frozen bloodworms and/or frozen mosquito larvae.
little cubes. they have variety packs that come with both of those as well as krill and brine shrimp.

Excellent! I give him the frozen krill and some brine.. but Ill go get some bloodworms too!

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Advantage

He'll be all right so long as you don't try to mix him up with anything other than his own kind. Because of the hybridizing, he's a bit malformed, so he'll have trouble coping with other fish that share his more aggressive personality traits and the gentler fish that won't bother him, he'll tend to beat to death because it's in his nature being cichlid-style territorial.

So about the only tankmates that he'll be able to live with will be another blood parrot, but that's not always a bad thing.

Blood parrots aren't my thing personally. I tend to like more natural fish, but I'm not an anti-blood parrot crusader either unless you got one that was hand dyed which is a cruel and inhumane practice.

Excellent advise and thank you!!

originally posted by: katfish
a reply to: Advantage

As you can see by my name, I am into fish.
All South and Central American cichlids are smart and interested in what is going on inside/outside the tank. Blood parrots are "manmade". But that is not their fault! They need homes and love like any other fish. Yes, love. They know when they are cared for and spoken to. My daughter's oscar cichlids would play ball. She would throw a ping pong ball into the tank and they would pop it back out TOWARD her.

Consider a couple buddies and eventually a much larger tank for the fish. Also, every fish needs hiding spots. I have plants, rocks, driftwood, terra cotta flower pots, and other debris that the fish can hide in and behind. Also, lighting. Give the fish darkness at night. A grow light or a full spectrum is very good for him. Buddies can include corydoras, plectostomas, black ruby barbs, maybe white clouds.

Give me a holler any time if you need help.

Thank you!!
Geez.. Im getting some great info here!

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Advantage

He'll be all right so long as you don't try to mix him up with anything other than his own kind. Because of the hybridizing, he's a bit malformed, so he'll have trouble coping with other fish that share his more aggressive personality traits and the gentler fish that won't bother him, he'll tend to beat to death because it's in his nature being cichlid-style territorial.

So about the only tankmates that he'll be able to live with will be another blood parrot, but that's not always a bad thing.

Blood parrots aren't my thing personally. I tend to like more natural fish, but I'm not an anti-blood parrot crusader either unless you got one that was hand dyed which is a cruel and inhumane practice.

from my experience keeping parrots and from the stores i have worked at i dont totally disagree with this. you put him in with this 'daddy fish' the midas/red devil and he will get tore up.

severums would be perfect tank mates for him(his other daddy fish) as well as other parrots like ketsuko said as well as loads of other tropical fish. you can absolutely keep parrots with gouramis and barbs for example. lots and lots of others because even though parrots are technically cichlids(and are bred from one of the most aggressive new world cichlids) and do have a bit of aggression they can not do any damage because of the way there mouth is formed. they can chase and that is about it.
that is another reason it is important to keep them away from things like midas, red devil, green terror, jack dempsey, etc etc is because they can not defend.

if you said this already i apologize but what other fish do you have? i may have missed it. i will tell you if they will be a good tank mate.
i am not saying you should get all these because i do not know what size you are working with but off the top of my head i say these will all be suitable mates. of course there are more but this was just real fast. also keep in mind that some of these fish like to school so if you get certain ones you should get three or more.
if i wanted to build a tank around a parrot i would put in something like these guys.

3-5 cherry barbs
a pleco of course
either a couple bala sharks or a couple red tail sharks. maybe one of each. depends on how randy i feel at the time.
a clown loach and/or a yo yo loach for sure. in addition, a couple khule loaches for sure.(fun fact about loahces. they love to eat snails so if you have a snail problem, get a loach.
a couple corey cats
not a huge gourami fan but a blue and a gold gourami
a betta(gasp. yes i know. youre not supposed to). ive done it and will continue to keep bettas with other fish. i would have a beta in there.
hmmmmmmmmmmmm. i am not a fan of most tropical fish so that is not my area...cichlids are my area
throw some tetras in there. some buenos aires maybe.
even though they technically are brackish you could toss in a dwarf puffer

as you can tell i am not a purists. my fish are always healthy though.

thats all i have for now. another tip i have. you will get the most amazingly clean, clear water. as a substrate instead of using gravel or sand use crushed coral. i will never use anything else.
you have to rinse the # out of it. when you think you have it all clean and rinsed, rinse it some more. even after you do all that you water will look very cloudy and kind of like ultra skim milk for a few days but once it clears you will be amazed. to set that off perfectly a couple pieces of malaysian driftwood works amazing. it is brownish red and once it settles in the water it looks a little darker. it is the perfect combo i think.

if you ever want to talk fish im here. i could go on about fish forever

a reply to: Advantage

The other thing to know is that with cichlids especially as they are so intelligent, they are all individuals. So while one blood parrot might be a holy terror, another might actually wind up being a halfway good citizen in a community tank. There are lots of good resources you can check out online that will help you, but you will need to keep in mind that they will be generalizing for your fish's type.

Also, if you take halfway decent care of your fish, you can expect to have him around for years like any good dog or cat would be.

I had African cichlids who lasted close to a decade for me before, and the humble corydoras cats are capable of living up to 20 years with the right care.

a reply to: ketsuko

i love african cichlids. when i first got into the hobby about 20 years ago i was strictly keeping central and south american cichlids because of their size. a few years in i got the bug to start an african tank and i have been in love ever since. african cichlid tanks are some of the most beautiful. the fish are gorgeous.

also another tip from me is please do not feed any of your fish live feeder fish from the stores. a lot of people get off on seeing their big ass oscar eat the rosie reds...
if you ever decide to feed live fish pleased do it from feeders you have bred yourself. you are asking for trouble if you feed live fish from the store.
those feeder fish have zero nutritional value and are kept in the dirtiest, nastiest water around. youre asking for a disease if you do that.
i would also stay away from buying fish from a store that has all their tanks on a central filtration type system. that will be most of your pet supplies plus type crap stores. i say avoid this because all the water flows through all the tanks.
that means if one fish from tank 1 on the top row has ick then all that water is flowing through all tanks. any meds that are dispensed will flow through all tanks.
i dont like that #

a reply to: TinySickTears

That is what the quarantine tank is for.

As much as I loved to avoid the local central filtration store, it wasn't always possible. That's when that bare smaller tank is there. You isolate the new fish and treat them as needed.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: TinySickTears

That is what the quarantine tank is for.

As much as I loved to avoid the local central filtration store, it wasn't always possible. That's when that bare smaller tank is there. You isolate the new fish and treat them as needed.

youre right about the quarantine tank. those fish still have no value to them. if you have room for a quarantine tank then you have room for a breeding tank of convicts. convicts pair up and bang like rabbits. they will have a new clutch every 45 days or so and the males and females are very easy to tell apart. then you can control their diet.

i am with you on avoiding the store. i am giving snobby, 'by the book' type tip(s).
in a perfect situation you would not have to go to those stores. cant always be avoided.
even though i just gave that advice i have purchased fish from those stores. we go in on a whim just to kill time and some little dude just speaks to me and i have to have him.
it usually turns out fine but they way they filter does not sit well with me.

what kind of africans did you have? there are so many beauties.