Polar parrots gender

[brownslug01]

I am wondering if anyone can help me with this I have recently taken in 4 polar parrots and I have heard they are prolific breeders but I have no idea what gender these are they all are healthy and happy but they do constantly chase each other around they are the only fish in the aquarium atm a 55 gallon hard to get good pictures there so fast if anyone could help identify genders that would be great not even sure if I got all the fish on the pictures it’s quite heavily planted almost impossible to catch good pictures of them all

 

[V227]

I believe Polar Parrots are a hybrid that include Convict Cichlid genetics.

Convict females have a red patch on the belly area when in breeding mode.

Convict males have extended dorsal & anal finnage.

Dealing with hybrids is tricky. Lol.
BTW, nice looking fish.

 

[Andy Sager]

You can check the vents the fish as these fish are all disfigured so the usual methods of sexing through fin shapes is far from accurate.
How to Vent Polar Parrot Cichlids
To vent your fish, you will need to gently and carefully remove it from the tank and inspect its underside.

1. Preparation: Have a soft net and a shallow container of aquarium water ready to safely handle the fish.
2. Handling the Fish: Gently catch the cichlid with the net. Use wet hands to carefully hold the fish upside down in the water, ensuring your grip is secure but not too tight, and the fish can still breathe.
3. Locate the Vents: Look at the fish's underside, just in front of the anal fin. You will see two small holes: the anus (closer to the head) and the vent (closer to the tail).
4. Examine the Vent Shape:
   • Female: The female will have two holes of different sizes. The vent, where the eggs come out during spawning, will be noticeably larger, more rounded, and possibly have a blunter, fatter breeding tube when ready to spawn. It often looks like a "U" shape.
   • Male: The male will have two holes of virtually identical size. The vent is smaller and more pointed, like a "V" shape.

 

[brownslug01]

HELP UPDATE I have hundreds of baby polar parrots free swimming I know I should of probably found this out before but I wasn’t sure if I had males and females what do I feed them do I have to do anything other than leave them be also the other two fish not the parents have been pinned to the other side of the tank behind a filter and anytime they try to venture out they are chased off by the parents any help would be appreciated thanks

 

[Andy Sager]

HELP UPDATE I have hundreds of baby polar parrots free swimming I know I should of probably found this out before but I wasn’t sure if I had males and females what do I feed them do I have to do anything other than leave them be also the other two fish not the parents have been pinned to the other side of the tank behind a filter and anytime they try to venture out they are chased off by the parents any help would be appreciated thanks

The best thing is to remove the other 2 fish if you want to keep the pair. 2nd would be to remove the fry and female from the tank. By splitting the pair, if you don't have another female, the males will have a little tussle to set dominance and then they should get along. It's the females that cause the problems. 3rd would be to sell off the pair and use that money to get new fish.
If you leave the pair in wit the other fish, the other fish have a much greater chance of getting sick from the stress which will in turn get the pair sick.
As for what to feed the fry, there is frozen baby brine shrimp which would be the best food to feed cichlid fry if you are not able to hatch out our own. Next would be any dedicated prepared fry foods ( there are a number of companies that make food for fish fry including decapsulated brine shrimp and " instant" baby brine shrimp). 3rd would be to take any dry adult food and crush it to powder form. Which one to use will depend on how old and big the fry are.

 

[brownslug01]

Thank you yeahhh I think Im going to have to remove the other two males they are pinned behind the filter and anytime they try to come out they are chased back I have ordered some hikari first bites that arrive tommorow so I ground up some cichlid pellets and tried to put some near where the fry were and was BITTEN by the father they are not messing around

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you yeahhh I think Im going to have to remove the other two males they are pinned behind the filter and anytime they try to come out they are chased back I have ordered some hikari first bites that arrive tommorow so I ground up some cichlid pellets and tried to put some near where the fry were and was BITTEN by the father they are not messing around

Most cichlids are very good parents so they are very protective of their fry. I can suggest, if you are using food that floats before sinking, add the food to a small amount of tank water in a cup then blow it towards the school of fry with a turkey baster. This way, the food goes to the fry instead of the fry needing to find the food and it spares you some skin.

 

[brownslug01]

Hi another update i lost a few of the fry yesterday only maybe 10 or so there are still ide say over a hundred it’s hard to count them they were getting sucked into the intake of the filter i had put a sponge over the intake but the suction was still too strong so I have taken that filter out of the tank and replaced it with a sponge filter from one of my other tanks that has been running for years my only thought is should I run the sponge filter on full air flow on the air pump or turn in down is there a chance the fry could get sucked in if it’s on max flow

 

[Andy Sager]

Hi another update i lost a few of the fry yesterday only maybe 10 or so there are still ide say over a hundred it’s hard to count them they were getting sucked into the intake of the filter i had put a sponge over the intake but the suction was still too strong so I have taken that filter out of the tank and replaced it with a sponge filter from one of my other tanks that has been running for years my only thought is should I run the sponge filter on full air flow on the air pump or turn in down is there a chance the fry could get sucked in if it’s on max flow

It's unlikely a full air driven sponge filter will suck in a cichlid fry but there's really no reason to run a sponge filter at full blast. Power filters are a different story. They never really are a good option when trying to raise fry. This is why commercial breeders all use sponge filters in fry tanks. If your sponge filter is not breaking up the surface water enough, attach an air stone inside the lift tube which will break more of the surface. Use a small bubble air stone for this vs a large bubble. You pull more water with small bubbles.

 

[brownslug01]

Honestly thank you so much for your help you are like the breeding guru another question so I replaced my two filters that were sucking up fry with a sponge filter from my other tank but I would like to add another one on the other side for more filtration if I bought a new sponge filter and placed it my larger community tank thats been running for years with no air pump attached for a week or so would that seed it with beneficial bacteria so I could then put it in my breeding tank and run it with the other one or would I be better off just running the new sponge in the breeding tank straightaway sorry if that sounds confusing

 

[Andy Sager]

Honestly thank you so much for your help you are like the breeding guru

I keep telling people, " I was a fish in my former life. " As a commercial breeder, I had to know all this stuff. The fish species may be different but the fish family stays the same.

another question so I replaced my two filters that were sucking up fry with a sponge filter from my other tank but I would like to add another one on the other side for more filtration if I bought a new sponge filter and placed it my larger community tank thats been running for years with no air pump attached for a week or so would that seed it with beneficial bacteria so I could then put it in my breeding tank and run it with the other one or would I be better off just running the new sponge in the breeding tank straightaway sorry if that sounds confusing

Just having a sponge filter in a cycled tank does not do anything unless the filter is running. Nitrifying microbes are attracted to areas in the tank with the most oxygenated water are so if there is no oxygenated water going through the sponge, there are no microbes going into it. Without air pulling water through the sponge, there is nothing happening in the sponge. With that said, it takes a few weeks to really get any appreciable amount of microbes into a new sponge filter just by being in the tank no matter how old the tank is. What you can do is in a bucket with some tank water, set up your new sponge filter and attach it to an airline and air pump. Take the old sponge and squeeze it a couple of times into the bucket. The water coming from the sponge should be dirty. ( If it's not dirty, it's not working. ) Let the new sponge filter run in the bucket until it sucks in all that dirty water. ( Usually an hour or two.) You can then put the filter and the remaining water back into the tank. THEN you will have a sponge filter that immediately has microbes in it and they will grow from there if necessary.

I've done this hundreds of times to get instantly cycled tanks for my fish fry. The key is that you can't do this for a tank full of adult fish but fish fry do not produce a lot of ammonia in a bare bottom tank so that is why it works. In your case, just keep tabs on the ammonia because you could have a lot of excess food in your substrate creating ammonia. :^0