Blood parrot cichlid

Water parameters

Tolerated range for this species. Aim for the middle of each band rather than the extremes.

Tank and habitat

Substrate: sand.

Behavior

Plant interaction: may uproot.

Feeding

The mouth deformity is the practical constraint at feeding time. The opening is narrow and vertical and never closes fully, so the fish takes food more awkwardly than a normal cichlid. Small pellets are easier than large ones, sinking pellets work better than floating, and gel foods, frozen bloodworm, and frozen brine shrimp are all readily accepted. Some individuals struggle to handle hard or oversized food and need it broken up. Watch new fish at meal times to confirm they are actually getting their share; in a tank with faster eaters they can be edged out and quietly lose weight.

Compatibility

• The beak-shaped mouth means the fish cannot bite effectively, so its aggression is more posture than action. Less dangerous to tankmates than its parent species, but easily bullied by anything that fights back. Severums, larger peaceful cichlids, big tetras, and plecos are reasonable matches; aggressive Mbuna and most Central American cichlids are not

Origin and habitat

Not a wild species. A man-made cichlid hybrid first produced in Taiwan in around 1986. The most widely cited parentage is a male Midas cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellus) crossed with a female redhead cichlid; the redhead is now most commonly classified as Vieja melanurus, although older literature and several sources still use the synonym Vieja synspila (or its previous genus name Paraneetroplus synspilus). The Taiwanese breeders treated the exact formula as a trade secret and continue to, so the alternative pairings periodically suggested in the hobby (with Heros severus or Amphilophus labiatus, for instance) are unconfirmed. The cross produces a fish with a striking rounded body and a beak-like mouth, but those features are deformities: the mouth has only a narrow vertical opening and does not close, the vertebrae are compressed, and there is a deformed nuchal hump above the head. The fish compensates for the unclosing mouth by using pharyngeal teeth at the back of the throat to crush its food. Despite this, the species can hold ground in a territorial dispute and will try to eat any small tankmate that fits past the beak. Selectively bred variants exist, including the King Kong parrot, which has a fully functioning mouth, less nuchal deformity, and grows larger than the standard form. Adults reach about 20 cm and a well-housed fish can live 10 to 15 years. The natural colour range from selective breeding is red, yellow, and grey; the bright purples, blues, greens, and pastel pinks sold under names like 'Bubblegum Parrot' and 'Jellybean Parrot' are produced by injecting dye, which is widely condemned in the hobby because the colour fades within weeks, the process is stressful, and the dye shortens the fish's life. A separate inhumane modification, 'Heart Parrots' or 'Purple Heart Parrots', has the tail surgically amputated when the fish is small so that the body grows into a heart shape; most reputable stockists no longer carry these. The species is controversial because the entire commercial line is built on a set of deliberately-bred deformities.

Breeding

Difficult, because almost all males are infertile. Females are usually fertile, lay eggs on a hard flat surface, and tend the clutch with the male, but with no fertile sperm the eggs fungus within a couple of days and the parents eat them. Some fish farms now inject male blood parrots with hormones to improve fertility, with mixed results, and a more reliable path to fry is to cross a female blood parrot with a male of a different Central American cichlid (convict or Midas are commonly used). Those crosses produce viable but unpredictable offspring that usually look nothing like a blood parrot. A pair will go through the entire spawning sequence (site cleaning, egg laying, fanning, guarding) regardless of whether the eggs are fertile, so a fish keeper watching a tank full of breeding behaviour and never seeing fry is looking at the normal outcome.

Common problems

The permanently open mouth is more vulnerable to bacterial infection around the oral cavity than a normal fish's. Watch for white patches and cotton-like growth there in particular. Swim-bladder issues are more common than in unhybridised cichlids because of the compressed body shape; sinking or gel food sits in the digestive tract more easily than floating pellets, which sometimes carry air. Some individuals are such poor competitive feeders that they need food delivered directly with tongs or a separate feeding session away from tankmates. The deformed mouth also means the fish loses any actual fight despite its aggressive intent, so pairing with truly combative cichlids leads to injuries it cannot return. Dyed specimens (Jellybean, Bubblegum, and similar) and tail-amputated 'Heart Parrots' are best avoided on welfare grounds; the natural orange-red is also the healthiest and longest-lived colour.

Bioload

Further reading

• How to cycle a fish tank
• Stocking ideas by tank size