BiColor Parrotfish seems bored or shocky?

[ferretttt]

My wife just picked up a bi-colored parrotfish at the LFS, cause it is goig out of business. She paid $30 for him and right now, he is about 3 inches in size. The thing is, he was swimming around a lot at the lfs and when we got him home and acclimated him, he seemed lethargic.

Now, he stays near the top of the tank, in one corner or the other, and sometimes hides in the rocks. What are we doing wrong?

I tried to hand feed him some fresh shrimp today with a feeding stick, but he didnt want it at all.

 

[Brenden]

Parrotfish are extremely hard to keep alive in a aquarium and should be left in the ocean. Plus they get up to 3 feet long. Most of them starve to death in aquariums. Good luck with it.

 

[tecwzrd]

Parrotfish are difficult to keep in aquariums since they need to constantly graze on dead coral rock in order to keep their teeth from growing too long. Home aquariums often do not grow enough algae to support parrotfish. Without the chance to scrape off algae, the beak of the parrotfish will continue to grow.

Not too hard to understand why this lfs went out of business.

If you have local aquariums see if they will take it in. You have little chance of it surviving even if you have a 300+ gal tank.

 

[roka64]

The Bicolor Parrotfish prefers a tank of at least 300 gallons with plenty of places to hide & swim

 

[melosu58]

I must concur with my fellow aquarist. I had one a long time ago and he did not last long.

 

[Hara]

are you sure it is a bicolor parrot and not a bicolor goatfish? (seems like an odd question, I know, but I cant believe a store had a parrotfish for sale)