Parrot Cichilds had to be Separated

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Fullmoonnight

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Dec 14, 2012
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188
We have a large(8") pair of parrot cichilds that we bought a couple of months ago. Ever since we brought them home they've been "kissing" and nipping each other and pushing each other around. It got so bad that one of them started getting paler, so we had to separate them. Any way to stop this? Or will they live the rest of their days out separately? :(
 
Hard to say with parrot cichlids as they are a cross breed of different cichlids but where larger cichlids are concerned, most of these guys need elbow room. I read somewhere that parrot cichlids have been a cross breed of red devil cichlids and other American cichlids so I'm guessing the aggression scale is going to be fairly high.. Did you get them as a breeding pair? And how big is your tank?? Anything less than 55 gallon you will probably either have to keep them separate or consider getting a bigger tank. If you still wanted to keep them in the one tank, maybe get a tank divider.
 
They are strange fish. When I got a second one they just hid from each other all day and eventually the new one got sick and died. I have a 55 gal. The original still hides all the time.
 
Hard to say with parrot cichlids as they are a cross breed of different cichlids but where larger cichlids are concerned, most of these guys need elbow room. I read somewhere that parrot cichlids have been a cross breed of red devil cichlids and other American cichlids so I'm guessing the aggression scale is going to be fairly high.. Did you get them as a breeding pair? And how big is your tank?? Anything less than 55 gallon you will probably either have to keep them separate or consider getting a bigger tank. If you still wanted to keep them in the one tank, maybe get a tank divider.

I have no idea. One of them does have a little white dot on it's belly though. I don't know if I can use that to define it's gender but I hear they are infertile fish. I didn't plan to get a breeding pair. My mom just walked by the tank and picked out the 2 biggest ones. At the current moment I'm keeping them in 2 20 gallons but before they were in a 40 g long. Not Ideal by any means but I'm worried my floor is going to collapse. ( I've got 3 40g ,2 20g, 2 10g, 1 5g,1 3g in one room...the 3 40s are stacked in one place...) I hear that we're renovating in the summer so then I can have the basement and can upgrade. :brows:
 
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