Blood parrot turning pale...

HI all! So some of you likely know I have a blood parrot cichlid in my 130 gallon aquarium along with some Oscars, feather fin catfish, and a few others. The tank is a bit overstocked but I do frequesnt water changes and don’t see much aggression. Most of the fish in there are pretty large and my blood parrot is 8” and turning two years old in a month or two. Anyway I know a lot about blood parrots as they are my favorite fish however today I have noticed Captain (the BP) has gone pretty pale. He still has orange but he is pale. I looked it up and it seems like it could be a few things:
Illness
Ready to breed
Stress/sadness

I am ruling out illness because I see no signs and he is eating and active like always. He doesn’t seem to stressed or sad either so my only thought would be he/she is getting ready to either mate or lay eggs. I have never seen any eggs however he does like to dig in gravel. I don’t know for sure if Captain is male or female however because he digs out nests I assume he is a male. It is possible that is Captain is female that she has layed eggs before and they have just been eaten before I could realize. I’m just positing to see if anyone has any other ideas. The water parameters are a bit off right now as I have recently had a injury that has prevented me from lifting heavy weights so water changes have not been done in a day or two. I do plan to do maybe 5 gallons today as well as rescaping the tank today so hopefully that will help. Here are water parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 60

thank you

 

Your Nitrates are pretty high, can you add some pothos or something to grow in the tank? (Put the roots in plant will grow outside the tank).

My worry is your nitrates and depending on how old the oscars are they could be starting to push the parrots around.

 

Your Nitrates are pretty high, can you add some pothos or something to grow in the tank? (Put the roots in plant will grow outside the tank).

My worry is your nitrates and depending on how old the oscars are they could be starting to push the parrots around.

there is only one parrot and two Oscars. I don’t see any aggression. I have some mangrove plants I could try to put in but I don’t know if it would work. I have been Doing large water changes to get the nitrates down but like I said I can’t really lift heavy things right now. Doing a 5 gallon water change will probably be kind of difficult and may take me a while. I should be able to lift things again soon but I don’t know. Like I said I plan to rescape today to add some visual blockers. Here is a photo of him:

Forgot to post photo, here:


The photo isn't great and he has more color than it appears, he isn’t that white but you get the point. You don’t think it could be breeding behavior or anything like that? He doesn’t seem stressed

Is it possible it could be a mood swing as well? Maybe he is just having a bad day or something?

 

My vote is for mood/stressed. I recently had to move one of my blood parrots into a separate tank so I could spot feed him better (has an unfortunate deformed mouth that proves difficult to feed in a community tank). His mate has since been paler similar to yours even with the same "patch" on the face that remains a darker color, and kinda just moping around the tank. I'm going to have to move my stocking around so their tank isn't a community tank anymore so I can reunite them.

 

Fish don't really "have bad days" like people. Fish usually get more vibrant for breeding behavior not turning white. The fish does have some ripped fins from what I can see too so I'd bet he's getting pushed around.

5g water change is also super small for a water change for this size tank. I completely understand not being able to lift buckets currently but I would not count on a big parameter change with 5 gallon change for a 130g tank. Can you look into one of the python gravel vacs? You attach it right to your sink and you can fill the tank right from there with no buckets.

 

Fish don't really "have bad days" like people. Fish usually get more vibrant for breeding behavior not turning white. The fish does have some ripped fins from what I can see too so I'd bet he's getting pushed around.

5 gallon water change is also super small for a water change for this size tank. I completely understand not being able to lift buckets currently but I would not count on a big parameter change with 5 gallon change for a 130g tank. Can you look into one of the python gravel vacs? You attach it right to your sink and you can fill the tank right from there with no buckets.

I really want a python. Trust me I have looked into them and I am hoping I can get one soon. And yes I understand that 5 gallons isn’t much for this sized tank. I just finished the rescape adding in many more visual blockers and two caves Captain can swim in to hide. He is actually coloring up a bit. Also I read that they grow pale when breeding, that’s just what I read it could be wrong. Here is the tank now:

Again forgot to post photo, I am out of it today I guess, here is the photo:


One of the lights is out BTW.

 

Hopefully that helps! When I had my BPs they never got like that for me when they were happy. Only when something was wrong.

Adding more plants will help your nitrate level tho. If you know anyone with house plants you get take cuttings of pothos plants and stick it in the water and it'll root and pull the nitrates from your water.

 

Hopefully that helps! When I had my BPs they never got like that for me when they were happy. Only when something was wrong.

Adding more plants will help your nitrate level tho. If you know anyone with house plants you get take cuttings of pothos plants and stick it in the water and it'll root and pull the nitrates from your water.

Would spider plants work? My family loves spider plants.

 

Would spider plants work? My family loves spider plants.

I don't know how they would do. Some plants are just better about their roots being in the water than others. Pothos and peace lilies are ones I know work well

 

Do a partial water change to reduce the nitrates. You have to stay up on water changes with cichlides in general, but parrots are very messy fish. It could be stress from that, but typically they turn black when stressed. If there is a more aggressive fish (like an oscar ) in the tank, parrots will start loosing their color regardless if its being bullied or not. I like a sign of submission to the dominant fish. They don't always stay like that and its not a bad thing necessarily. For me, it was good and the fighting between him and my other parrot stopped since this is like him saying I'm weaker and no longer a threat. Just keep an eye on him and make sure another fish in the tank doesn't take advantage and start bullying too.

 

Just posting an update! Thank you all for the help, he seems to be doing much better now and the parameters are down to 10-20 nitrates. I did get a python finally so I have been doing a lot of water changes, lol

 

Just posting an update! Thank you all for the help, he seems to be doing much better now and the parameters are down to 10-20 nitrates. I did get a python finally so I have been doing a lot of water changes, lol

Great, glad to hear he is doing better