My baby blood parrot

I had a 28 gallon planted aquarium with 0 fish in it. I moved my community fish to my 20 hexagon aquarium. So I wanted something different in the 29 something I never had before and I saw some videos on YouTube about blood parrots and that peeked my interest. So I did some more research on them learned that they can be very shy at 1st. Act like children in adult bodies, very intelligent stubborn a fish with personality. I also know they grow big which I'm not worried about I have a 55 gallon tank I can set up eventually so I just got my new pet blood parrot cichlid today from pet smart. I know it a baby no orange what so ever. I have to say the little one not as shy as I thought it be . Right away when I released it in it's new home it investigates EVERYTHING now it's going back and forth by the huge driftwood lol peeking out at me. I think its is as fascinated about me as I am with it. Anyways my question how fast do these do parrot fish grow? When should I change 29 tons 55 gallon? Lol what should I name it...heck can someone help sex it? Hmm playing shy right now I do pictures later.

 

Are you positive that's a blood parrot? Reason I ask is I don't see any kind of head-notch, and the big box stores tend to stock them in the same tanks as the convict cichlids... I know they don't always start out orange and it's hard to tell how big he is from that photo.

 

I'm pretty sure the picture not good. I look at YouTube video of a baby blood parrot until grown.it looks like mine plus sign said blood parrot at pet smart but I wont be 100% sure until few months when hopefully orange starts showing.... if they screwed up I be a bit angry because in already getting attach to the little one

 

Looks like a blood parrot to me but I’m not 100% sure

if it is they are relatively slow growers it should take about a year probably to reach full grown. You won’t be able to sex it until it’s older and I have one in a 40 gallon and have never had to upgrade so I’m not sure on when you’ll need to upgrade

 

I'm pretty sure it's a blood parrot.when it work up this morning I notice something interesting... the scales had stripes to it. Also a red tinge. It's back to being grayish once it woke up still playing little shy but curious. Still need to name it....tail has a Red tinge to it. I'm going to assume maybe in about a month the little one will start showing more red....

 

Hi. So any idea what you're going to name him/her?

 

Not yet starting to learn its personality. Playing shy but curious.Now has 3 areas where it can hide. I name it eventually.....

 

Not yet starting to learn its personality. Playing shy but curious.Now has 3 areas where it can hide. I name it eventually.....

She sounds a lot like my betta fish so far, personality wise. He's pretty bold, but startles easily. If you ever need name suggestions, you know who to call. ;P

 

Well I'm not sure if it's my good quality food I'm feeding but I already starting to see some colour changes. The drabby brown is slowly starting toshow more orange .. especially the tail. I been feeding it bug bites colour enhance flakes in the morning and blood worms on the evening. It still s little wary of me but it either starting to trust me more or the blood worms to tempting that it will snatch them out of my fingers if I hold it out. I'm curious to know when its natural caution will vanish and it start greeting me at front of the tank.....

 

yeah i totally agree it looks like a BRP now. I couldn't see him very well in the first pic. I absolutely love mine. I got him at Petsmart as well and I've had him for about ten months now. Yours is super cute

 

I was scoping the blood parrots at pet smart for a few weeks before I bought this one. The 1st time I went the blood parrots I was looking at ones that were orange and look like blood parrots but they were very very shy. I noticed a few brown cichlids that at the time I didnt know were juvenile blood parrots. They were below them. Those little guys weren't afraid of me one little bit. I was becoming more fascinated with them more then the ones in the tank above. When I finally decided a blood parrot was what I wanted I went back but ALL the orange blood parrots were gone. The cichlids below that I was fascinated with had maybe 6 or 7 left and again all was infront of tank looking at me. Out of curiosity I look at the label and to my surprise it said blood parrot. I googled baby blood parrots on youtube and found the video on how they changed colours as a juvenile to adult. I spent at least 30 minutes trying to decide on which one I wanted to buy by slowly moving my finger lightly on the glass to see which one was more curious.... there was 2 that caught my eye the one I have and a bigger fatter brown one. I asked the pet store lady which one she thought I should get and she pick this little one for me. And she really pick out a good fish love watch this one roam around the tank. I still see interesting patterns.... just now it has some interesting stripes in its body.... is that normal? Sometomes I see the stripes clearly other times it the orange colour in the brown.. Took off before I could take a picture but this pattern comes and goes.

 

Could you post a picture of the stripes if you can? If the pattern comes and goes it could be "stress stripes". It's hard to tell, but from the pictures he also looks a little bloated. It could just be the angle, but just try to watch how much you're feeding or it could develop into a more serious issue.

 

He just ate quite a bit if blood worms. Hence the big tummy

Dont worry it be flat once it takes a big

 

He just ate quite a bit if blood worms. Hence the big tummy

Ahhh say no more. I wasn't sure if it was the angle or not.

 

I'm unsure if I can doesn't sit still and roams around the tank in different areas. Drift wood mainly and skull. 2 favourite spots.

 

There are lots of cichlids who can change colors to an extent based on their mood. Oscars, laetacara, and convicts for instance. And midas cichlids, thought to be one of the parent species of BRP, are striped when they are young.

 

It's very pretty. I'm amazed on how its colur changes. Also could be the lightening and where it is in the tank that makes it look different....Most times I see 3 dot like smear at end near tail. The red tone depending again where in the tank either shows up brownish red or dissapeared into the stripes I remarked on..... I think if I got one that had adult colours I wouldn't see this amazing transformation.

 

Finally decided to stop playing shy for a bit got couple pictures but stripes are now gone.

 

see the red tone I'm talking about and the 3 dots atend of tail.

 

I'm debating on naming it cinders...