How do parrot fish breed? Detailed explanation of breeding methods
The parrot fish is actually an artificial masterpiece accidentally discovered by people in Taiwan, China, and its origin is quite unusual. The father of the parrot fish is the red devil, and the mother is the redhead cichlid, both of which belong to the large South American cichlid family. Its red body and endearing appearance attracted fish keepers, with its triangular mouth that cannot close, highly arched back, and large eyes making it very rare.
Breeding methods for parrot fish
Although the parrot fish is cute, it is entirely a man-made product; although cute, it has been artificially crafted. Its origin, its body color, and its body shape are all artificially crafted. When the parrot fish is still a juvenile, it looks completely black, and later the black gradually fades and turns pink. At this time, color-enhancing feed must be given to enhance its color and lay the foundation for its future brilliant colors; otherwise, if this period is missed, even feeding color-enhancing feed later will be of no help. Its most common color is red, but its body color is variable and changes with the environment and water temperature. Usually, when the water temperature is lower or just after a water change, the body color becomes lighter, appearing pink or white. It also has a yellow variety, and because of hybridization, its genes are very unstable. If it is given special purple feed, it will be purple when it grows up.
The eggs between parrot fish cannot reproduce, just like mules; to obtain parrot fish, they can only be bred through the red devil and the redhead cichlid. Because cichlids have a strong sense of territory, two fish together often fight until one is killed, so before breeding, the male parent red devil and the female parent redhead cichlid are anesthetized, and then their mouths and teeth are cut off with scissors, followed by hemostasis and disinfection. How about that? Cruel, right? Newly hatched young parrots should be fed pigment feed. If you want to obtain the unicorn variety, cut off part of their dorsal fin. If you want to obtain the heart-shaped variety, cut off their tail fin entirely.
Breeding environment for parrot fish
1. Water quality requirements: Blood parrots like weakly acidic soft water with lower hardness. Because blood parrots are born with lips that cannot close, their ability to control the intake and output of water flow is poor, the water flow passing through the gills is relatively small, and their ability to exchange oxygen through the gills relying on water flow 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 is best equipped with biochemical filter cotton, a water pump, and aeration 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. However, blood parrots are also quite sensitive to temperature. Under low water temperature and drastic changes in water temperature, they are prone to stress reactions, resulting in dull body color and loss of brilliant luster, and may even develop black stripes or markings. 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.
3. Feeding management: 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 easy to keep blood parrots alive, but it is not easy to raise blood parrots with a strong physique 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, which has added astaxanthin and D-class carotenoids, is not only convenient to feed directly but can also make the body color of blood parrots more vivid and attractive.