fishlover78

Hi everyone,
I just had a quick question. Are blood parrot cichlids as messy as oscars? I was just wondering and what is there minimum tank recommendations. anybody know from personal experience? thanks again! -fishlover78

Shawnie

"The fish are voracious eaters and generate significant uneaten debris during feeding. High volume filtration and frequent substrate suctioning is recommended to minimize nitrates"

heres the rest of the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_parrot_cichlid and they can be as dirty as oscars as far as eating, but their bioload isnt close

fishlover78

okay, so they eating is not a problem, it is just the bio load I was wondering about. I would still have over filtration as always, would you use a canister or 2 power filters? the canister would definitely be more efficient in cleaning up after them right?

Shawnie

im a canister fan myself

fishlover78

well, not to long my grandpa had a 55 gallon tank with some chiclids, and he had two canister filters going on that thing and the water looked amazing, ad the parameters were good too. they also hold a ton more media than the power filters. what kind of filter do have on your cichlid tank? unfortunately he got rid of that tank before a was into this, oh well you can't change the past!

Shawnie

I have a whisper 1200 on my 75 gal...and yes I agree I have alot of extra media and because im overstocked, I run carbon in mine and its soooooooo much easier to change it out every 3 weeks than cutting slits and having to buy all new cartridges for the HOB filters..

fishlover78

tell me about it!

Allie

All large fish are messy...bigger the fish the more pooh and waste.

fishlover78

I knew that but I just didn't know their habits, I wanted to know about feeding, not pooing. its a given that the bigger the fish the more poo they have! thanks though

Allie

Well then cichlids are all piggies even the hybrids, not too messy if they eat it all at once.
What the heck would you be feeding an oscar that would be all that messy?

fishlover78

don't ask me, I have been told they can be messy with their eating habits. I personally have never had one.

Shawnie

shrimp, beeef heart etc and yes they are messy and spit it out then eat it again LOL

fishlover78

thanks Shawnie!

Slug

Being a mix of various large SA/CA cichlids i'd reason and believe that the blood parrot would be no different. A large tank is necessary just like oscars as they potentially can reach 12".