Blood parrot color change

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Fishie

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
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My blood parrot has lost its color again. The levels in my tank are great I tested this morning. He was a brighter orange and now he looks whitish or just pale. Some fish get pale because of stress or different thing are blood parrots like this?
 
when you say your water parameters are great what exactly are they? are you using liquid testing? any info you can provide would be helpful. how long has the tank been set up?
 
jpchin said:
when you say your water parameters are great what exactly are they? are you using liquid testing? any info you can provide would be helpful. how long has the tank been set up?

Ammonia-0
Nitrates and nitrites about 5PPM
PH-6.8 (near my tap)
I use the API test kit. The tank has been setup for maybe a month or more near Dec. 23. I have 2 and the other one isn't as orange. He eats and everything and haven't added anything new the the tank. He does have a black Mark near his dorsal fin but he add that when I got him.
 
Nu-Nu the eel said:
Nitrites at 5 pm??!! What? I hope you typed that wrong, or i read it wrong :)
Um no i could of read it wrong or something but I think so.
 
Nu-Nu the eel said:
Wait so your tank is still cycling? Im confused, sorry.

Sorry I make things confusing! No it's not cycling anymore the nitrates are 5 and nitrites are at 0
 
Nu-Nu the eel said:
Ooooohhh okay i gottcha. You said nitrites and nitrates so i was like whaaat?!

Lol yea I was trying to type fast
 
well your numbers look good if the nitrites are at 0 and not at 5. i have read other people on this site say that their parrot fish turned from all orange to almost all black/brown when they got older. here is an article about parrot fish.
Cichlid Research Home Page: Parrot Cichlids

hope this helps. also keep a daily test on your water as this fish might cause a spike in your aquarium's ammonia. your tank is still "young" and adding fish can cause a mini cycle. add fish very slowly to your tank . i would wait at least a week in between fish additions and test daily in case you need to do more than 1 water change a week. what is your water change schedule now? you should change about 25% weekly unless your numbers rise. good luck!:)
 
jpchin said:
well your numbers look good if the nitrites are at 0 and not at 5. i have read other people on this site say that their parrot fish turned from all orange to almost all black/brown when they got older. here is an article about parrot fish.
Cichlid Research Home Page: Parrot Cichlids

hope this helps. also keep a daily test on your water as this fish might cause a spike in your aquarium's ammonia. your tank is still "young" and adding fish can cause a mini cycle. add fish very slowly to your tank . i would wait at least a week in between fish additions and test daily in case you need to do more than 1 water change a week. what is your water change schedule now? you should change about 25% weekly unless your numbers rise. good luck!:)

Thanks a lot!!! That helped! I do a 20%-25% water change once a week. I did one yesterday!
 
Thanks a lot!!! That helped! I do a 20%-25% water change once a week. I did one yesterday!

that's great. the best gift you can give your fish is good water quality. that is the number one thing in fishkeeping. if you have good water your fish will have the best chance to stay healthy and avoid so many problems. you must be on top of your water parameters at all times. i test everyday for ammonia and nitrates. i test every other day for ph. i have all the same fish for the past year and haven't lost any yet(knock on wood lol) i do a 25% water change every 3-4 days. i also reccommend seachem "prime"water conditioner. most people on this site use it and their advice made me switch from api to prime. it's good stuff. hope everything works out for you and you know you can count on the people on this site to help when you need it. they are very generous with the knowledge they have and really care about fish and the health of the fish(and the sanity of the fish keeper):)
 
My girlfriend recently bought two Super Red Blood Parrots today, and we were asking a few questions about them.

Initially baby blood parrots are grey/black and it all depends on the water parameter and the right feeding to turn them from black to super red. Since your parameters are good, it may be because of the food you are feeding. He told us that some people bought really red/orange blood parrots and then it turned black/dark and vice versa.

So my question is, what are you feeding your blood parrots and what size tank are you having them in?
 
Cornstar said:
My girlfriend recently bought two Super Red Blood Parrots today, and we were asking a few questions about them.

Initially baby blood parrots are grey/black and it all depends on the water parameter and the right feeding to turn them from black to super red. Since your parameters are good, it may be because of the food you are feeding. He told us that some people bought really red/orange blood parrots and then it turned black/dark and vice versa.

So my question is, what are you feeding your blood parrots and what size tank are you having them in?

I'm feeding them tetraMin tropical flakes and now I'm feeding them tropical color enhancing flakes. Some times cichlid pellets omega one the floating kind. They are in a 55G but it is starting to crack bad. Not on my profile because my friends help me buy it. Part of the weird deal I made
 
i really like the blood parrots as well but im not sure if these fish would be ok in a community tank? I was thinking of getting some tetras, zebra danios, yoyo loaches , blood parrot and maybe a discus or Ram a few months down the road..is this possible?

i did do some research on the blood parrot and it said that they are peaceful fish but can get territorial. Also that their teeth are pushed way back so it makes it hard to defend themselves against more aggressive fish
 
Quest84 said:
i really like the blood parrots as well but im not sure if these fish would be ok in a community tank? I was thinking of getting some tetras, zebra danios, yoyo loaches , blood parrot and maybe a discus or Ram a few months down the road..is this possible?

i did do some research on the blood parrot and it said that they are peaceful fish but can get territorial. Also that their teeth are pushed way back so it makes it hard to defend themselves against more aggressive fish

I had them with platys for awhile and this blood parrot was fine with them. People might say otherwise but he didn't attack anyone. He didn't get territorial until I added a second one. Now it is just them.
 
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