How to Keep Mini Parrot Fish? Detailed Guide to Breeding Methods and Keeping Techniques
In recent years, mini parrot fish have become increasingly popular with consumers on the market. They have extremely high ornamental value, so many people choose to keep them. However, when keeping mini parrot fish, you also need to master many keeping techniques and breeding techniques, otherwise problems may arise, and may even cause the fish to die.
How to Keep Mini Parrot Fish
1. Water quality requirements. Blood parrots prefer soft water that is weakly acidic and low in hardness. Because blood parrots are born with lips that cannot close, their ability to control the intake and expulsion of water flow is poor, the water flow passing through the gills is relatively small, and their ability to exchange oxygen through the water flow and gills is much worse than that of their male and female parents and other fish. Therefore, the water body for keeping blood parrots must have sufficient oxygen. The aquarium should preferably be equipped with biochemical filter cotton, a water pump, and aeration and oxygen-increasing equipment. The specific indicators are a pH value of about 6.5 and dissolved oxygen of 8 mg/L.
2. Temperature control. Blood parrots have strong adaptability to temperature and can live freely in water temperatures of 20-30°C. But blood parrots are also quite sensitive to temperature. Under low water temperature and drastic changes in water temperature, they are prone to stress reactions, causing their body color to become dull and lose its brilliant luster, and even black stripes or markings may appear. During the keeping process, it is best to keep the water temperature within the range of 25-28°C, and the temperature difference before and after each water change should not exceed 0.5°C.
How Mini Parrot Fish Breed
1. Mini parrot fish generally pair up on their own. When they reach the sub-adult stage of about 4 cm, the male fish is noticeably larger than the female fish, and the male fish's upper and lower fins will have trailing filaments, generally longer than the caudal fin. The female fish's belly will be rounder, and the belly and caudal fin will turn red and other signs of estrus will appear. Fish that have already paired up will drive away other fish.
2. The male fish will occupy the breeding cave and allow the female fish to enter. After the female fish's ovipositor descends, she will spawn within a few days. The greatest charm of this fish is that the parent fish will take care of the fry. During egg hatching, try to provide the parent fish with a quiet environment. When frightened, they may eat the eggs and fry. Generally, after 30 hours, the eggs can be seen turning black, and during this period unfertilized white eggs will appear. The parent fish guarding the eggs will eat the white eggs. After 72 hours, the eggs can be seen revealing tails and falling onto the spawning surface. Generally, after about 7 days, the fry become free-swimming.
3. Before the fry become free-swimming, the parent fish will dutifully protect the fry. Some fry that roll out of the breeding cave will also be picked up and brought back by the parents. Until the fry become free-swimming, they can be kept together with the parent fish, or after spawning they can be hatched separately.
Feeding and Management of Mini Parrot Fish
Blood parrots have omnivorous feeding habits and will eat almost anything, including artificial bait, flakes, pellets, bloodworms, brine shrimp, and water fleas, and they are quite greedy. Therefore, it is very easy to keep blood parrots alive, but it is not easy to raise blood parrots with a strong constitution and bright body color. Feed bait regularly and in fixed amounts every day, reasonably match the nutrition of the bait, and regularly feed fresh small shrimp and small fish. It is best to choose artificial bait specially formulated for blood parrots. This kind of feed, with added astaxanthin and D-class carotene, is not only convenient to feed directly but can also make the body color of blood parrots more vivid and attractive.
What to Do If Mini Parrot Fish Turn White
1. Dye injection: If pigment was injected while at the fish seller's place, and the pigment gradually fades after bringing it home, then the parrot fish will gradually turn white. If this is the cause, then there is no other way, and you can only buy parrot fish again.
2. Feed problem: Parrot fish can only become red from a young age by eating feed with added reddening agents. It may be your feed problem. You should buy feed with a reddening effect and feed it to them, otherwise their color will slowly turn white.
3. Environmental problem: When parrot fish first arrive in a new environment, their color will turn white for a period of time. Once they have all adapted, it will gradually return.
When keeping mini parrot fish, be sure to pay attention to the cleanliness of the water, and also control the temperature well. If the temperature is too high or too low, it may cause discomfort in the fish and lead to death. Feeding mini parrot fish is also very important. Generally, fish and shrimp or artificial bait are the most common.