Feeding amount for 2 blood parrots

I have a question about the feeding amount for 2 blood parrots, one 4 inches, one 7 inches.

I have omega one cichlid flakes. The back of the package says feed them the amount they can eat in like a few minutes, but the problem is they are slow eaters because of their deformed mouths, so I think that instruction is just very confusing in my scenario.

I give them both about 2 tablespoons of flakes (about 4 pinches) twice daily.

Is that enough? I wonder if I am giving them too little or too much. I certainly don't want them to over eat more than under eat.

I do feel that just a regular pinch of flakes is enough for the little guy, and maybe 2 regular pinches for the big guy, but my close family disagrees (someone also said fill up the tank top 2/3 which is like 5 tablespoons, which I think is way too much).

I'm fairly new to this so I'm clueless.

 

Feeding a correct amount of fish is a little trial and error.

Any brand of fish food will give generic instructions. Our African Mbuna devour any food put in the tank, they eat like starving maniacs. They would be overfed quickly if I fed them continuously for a few minutes straight!

On the other hand, our SA cichlids are slower to eat. We have one Blood Parrot and ours doesnt eat fast either.

I think when using flake, give the fish a pinch or two and just see how much ends up floating around and sinks to bottom versus how much is eaten.

For our community fish and African/SA cichlids, we feed a combination of flake, different types of pellets, cucumber slices, freeze dried mealworms, and frozen fish foods. Some foods are fed to all fish while other foods only for certain fish.

I like to give our fish a variety of foods, changing it each day or giving them flake in morning and pellets in afternoon for example, so they get a mix of nutritional sources. I skip a day of feeding at least once per week as well.

For your Blood Parrots, I would suggest to try feeding them pellets. Pellets are more nutritionally dense and you can better gauge how much they actually eat.

Omega One is a quality brand of fish food. Since you're using their flake, I suggest to try their cichlid pellets. They come in different sizes, marked in mm. So dont get the 10mm pellets for monster fish by accident, the Blood Parrots wont be able to eat them with their little mouths! Ha

 

Okay.

Most fish can go quite a long time without any food at all, in the wild, they ONLY eat when the opportunity presents itself. (granted, you'll never see blood parrots in the wild but...in terms of feeding this is generally true). Usually the threshold is about 2 weeks before they can start getting ill from no food.

Its better to feed less than it is to over feed. Reason is because over feeding will ruin your water quality, spike your ammonia, increase your nitrate and phosphates (which cause algae) etc.

In reading the instructions on the food bag/can, thats really the best rule of thumb. Add food to the tank, wait until the fish have eaten a good amount of the food (between 5-7 min) and at that point they should have eaten enough.

If there is still a lot of flake in the tank after they've eaten their amount, than you should try to remove some of it. Fish are insatiable a lot of the time, they'll eat as much as they can, even if they don't need to. So long as they're getting a bit of sustenance every day, they should be fine.

I agree with above too, pellets are easier for them to hit and easier to remove if you do end up over feeding.

 

Thank you for the helps, I have pellets as well (New Life Spectrum), but I accidentally got the really small size, I think it is 1mm size, so the big one hates it.

I will look into a bigger size pellets for the big guy. (maybe 2-3mm)

 

The NLS you have is a very good quality brand.

2mm-3mm probably would be a good medium sized pellet.

The larger Blood Parrot would probably eat the smaller pellets if you withheld the flake for a couple of days.

 

, another food you may want to try to give as a treat a few times a week is the Zilla brand "Reptile Munchies Meal Worms". They are freeze dried and come in a re-sealable bag, I think around 4oz.

My SA cichlids go crazy for them. The float on the surface and they all come up to grab them, even the lone Angelfish and Eel get in on the "treats".

I pour a few out in my hand and break some in half, so the smaller pieces can be easily eaten by the Blood Parrot, Eel and Angelfish.

Here are pics of our Blood Parrot








For the last 2 weeks, ours has been a PITA always following around the Vieja and not leaving it alone. This just started, it wants to be the boss, but it's amusing because it's literally "all bark and no bite" with it's small mouth.

I mention this because I was curious if you have other stocking in the tank and if so, do your Blood Parrots leave them alone or try to chase them around as well?

 

Thank you I somehow accumulated a collection of fish food over the past month, but I have more room for more diverse food

For the last 2 weeks, ours has been a PITA always following around the Vieja and not leaving it alone. This just started, it wants to be the boss, but it's amusing because it's literally "all bark and no bite" with it's small mouth.

I mention this because I was curious if you have other stocking in the tank and if so, do your Blood Parrots leave them alone or try to chase them around as well?

To give a backstory, I adopted the 2 from my friend b/c his family didn't want them anymore. They owned them for 5+ years. They were cramped up in a 30g tank (there were 4 BPs originally but 2 died; friend says due to big one bullying all; while that is true I think more of a space issue and stress).

I got a 45g tank for them, but the big one still bullies the smaller one, everyday esp feeding time. So recently I set up a separate 29g tank (wanted a bigger one but don't have space) just for the little guy. So to your question, yes ,the big one no matter how much food / hiding places / good water quality I gave them both, still bullies the little one so much that the small BP formed a scar on his left side (white patch) with scales falling apart.

So after I fully cycle this 29g tank, I plan to leave them both alone (I gave up on worrying if they will be lonely) for some a few months before I decide what to do next.

To answer your question, if I had other livestock, yes, the big BP would bully them to death. The smaller one is much less aggressive to the big one, seems only aggressive rarely but that might be associated to the spawning behavior, protecting its cave (pot).