I picked up a princess parrotfish a couple weeks ago. Beautiful fish, great coloring. I called home to have the missus get online and do a quick check before the purchase. Seemed like an okay fish.
This is the smaller of the parrots, not the larger (much larger) bi-color. They get up to 13", he's about 6 or 7 inches now.
The reference (not the Michael whoever book everybody swears by) I used in the store explained that they could be a little challenging to feed, but otherwise acceptable in a FOWLR, or a mini-reef without soft corals (I have no corals and probably won't for a few years). Well, turns out they have a reputation for being very difficult to feed, and they need tons of LR to graze one.
He's doing well - scraping diatoms off the glass, scraping algae build-up off LR (including the nice purple and pink growth). Its amazing to see and understand the process of how they convert coral to sand - not to be gross, but he "poops" sand. It just sprays out of him, settles onto the bottom, and there ya go - new live sand
He has been going after some pellet food I got for my clowns (they won't touch it), after it settles to the bottom, and occasionally he nibbles on mysis (a few bites with each feeding).
He seems happy, active, and is getting along well, except he did bite the tip off one of my serpent star's arms - I think he thought it was a worm coming out from a rock.
Anyone have any experience with other foods for these guys? I know they like scraping on established LR, and I think I've got enough for him (around 50 pounds), but I'd like to supplement his diet as much as possible.
I also want to sustain or speed up the coralline growth on my LR, now that something is eating it off. I've got the Kent mini-reef starter set, with calcium, iodine, and the molybdenum. Going to get a calcium test kit, thinking about trying "Purple-Up".
Any experiences with a princess parrotfish would be great.
This is the smaller of the parrots, not the larger (much larger) bi-color. They get up to 13", he's about 6 or 7 inches now.
The reference (not the Michael whoever book everybody swears by) I used in the store explained that they could be a little challenging to feed, but otherwise acceptable in a FOWLR, or a mini-reef without soft corals (I have no corals and probably won't for a few years). Well, turns out they have a reputation for being very difficult to feed, and they need tons of LR to graze one.
He's doing well - scraping diatoms off the glass, scraping algae build-up off LR (including the nice purple and pink growth). Its amazing to see and understand the process of how they convert coral to sand - not to be gross, but he "poops" sand. It just sprays out of him, settles onto the bottom, and there ya go - new live sand
He has been going after some pellet food I got for my clowns (they won't touch it), after it settles to the bottom, and occasionally he nibbles on mysis (a few bites with each feeding).
He seems happy, active, and is getting along well, except he did bite the tip off one of my serpent star's arms - I think he thought it was a worm coming out from a rock.
Anyone have any experience with other foods for these guys? I know they like scraping on established LR, and I think I've got enough for him (around 50 pounds), but I'd like to supplement his diet as much as possible.
I also want to sustain or speed up the coralline growth on my LR, now that something is eating it off. I've got the Kent mini-reef starter set, with calcium, iodine, and the molybdenum. Going to get a calcium test kit, thinking about trying "Purple-Up".
Any experiences with a princess parrotfish would be great.