spitting stones

[lurch73]

Hi all does anyone know the reason why my parrot picks gravel up with her mouth from the back of the tank and spits it at the front glass ? It's very amusing to watch but she's digging holes all over the place. And also she chases a male green severum but mostly at night time they get along great in the day ?

 

[T-man02]

Digging is what cichlids do. Now as to gravel placement that I have no clue

 

[Boomer23]

Ur fish is basically playing around, they like to dig dens in gravel for comfort sort of like a home, when i had them they did it alot specially wen breeding for the young to hang out in, they do the same to the children if they leave the nest they will suck them up and spit them out back in the den, really amusing

 

[lurch73]

Ok thanks new to cichlids had a community set up before.

 

[lurch73]

Yeh they definitely have lots of personality and very interesting to watch

 

[Boomer23]

Yes they are, if they start to breed it gets even better, Probally one of the most interesting fish ive bred so far was these guys

 

[lurch73]

Glad you mentioned that iv noticed in the last few days she has like a gland protruding just forward of her anal fin that seems to be getting slightly larger any ideas

 

[lurch73]

Here's a pic

 

[Boomer23]

Very beautiful fish, nd if u have other chiclids in the tank then its a deff possibility, it does look from the pic that it may b that time haha

 

[lurch73]

Iv only had her a week or so she came from a mixed tank with severums a Oscar and some smaller cichlids will she still lay the eggs if she's without her mate

 

[meegosh]

Sounds like typical cichlid behavior. My geos will dig massive holes, all the way down to the eggcrate. No rhyme or reason for the placement. Some will sleep in them, others just dig them for fun it seems.

As far as laying eggs... if the fish is happy in its environment it will lay eggs. My female angel hasn't seen another angel, let alone a male, in years and she still lays eggs after every water change. She even goes through the motions of fanning/guarding the eggs for days. She gradually eats the eggs as they die, one by one.

 

[lurch73]

Ok thanks for the info and i'll keep an eye out and see if anything happens

 

[Boomer23]

She will deff lay eggs but nothing will hatch as there is no male to fertilize them, ive seen my father do some interesting things nd he actually got a pregant female from the store, nd another male in the tank fertilized them nd had several fry. Now how he did it is unknown nd jus nature took control i guess lol but still fascinating how it all went down.

 

[Jacobsal91]

I have a sand bed with my african cichlids, had gravel before they just dig away. They like to dig under the slate rocks i have in there and they make little tunnels its pretty sweet to watch, totally normal behavior, sometimes if it gets out of hand ill flatten it out but its what they like so i usually try to just leave it alone

 

[Jacobsal91]

And also for the record parrot cichlids like that ine will lay eggs but to my knowledge they wont hatch, They are hybrids between a red devil and a gold severum...

 

[lurch73]

Thanks for the replys

 

[lurch73]

The parrot layed her eggs today but will not tolerate the green sev anywhere near fighting like mad so iv had to separate them.

 

[jrskater1999]

They like to move the rocks around because they are "tidying up" their area