Parrot fish aggressive?

[SwampFins]

So I was watching a video on YouTube, this guy that keeps a bunch of aggressive fish and noticed towards the end of the video that he had to rehome an oscar due to two parrot fish being aggresive towards it.

Now, I've owned two blood parrots before and while they were a little feisty, I never had them do any damage to anyone. I never thought they could even if they tried to because of their oddly shaped mouths.

Have anyone here had something like this happen with them? Or have you kept them with aggressive fish of similar sizes?

I'm a little puzzled over that one.

 

[RD.]

I just posted this a couple of hours ago in another discussion. In my case she's more of a KKP, with a normal mouth and head, compared to a typical BP, and she can shred fins & peel scales off with the best of them. When I bought her a couple of years ago she was in with a tank of monster "red devils" of mixed blood, and was squaring off with one of the larger males, that was easily well over a foot long. At the time I thought that I was rescuing her, umm, more like rescuing those red devils from a serious ass whooping. lol

Most likely with young fish, not full grown adults. I have seen a lot of beat up carpintis females, along with many that were simply killed outright. My male almost killed my KKP when they initially paired off, the only thing that saved her was that she is tuff as nails, and she initially had a couple of inches on him. I came home from work one day and both were badly torn up and looked they had just gone through a hurricane. This is in a 6ft tank. He's still to this day violent/aggressive pre-spawning, but so is she, and he has learned to respect her aggressive side so they get along relatively well. I would not try keeping H. carpintis in a 4 ft tank without a divider, unless you don't mind risking the loss of females. Most female carpintis won't be as large or as powerful as my KKP. She's a beast. lol

View attachment 1371165

 

[SwampFins]

Oh wow shes a beaut!

I do see the difference in the mouth on that picture, the bp's I've kept were nothing like that.

 

[Andy woods cichlids uk]

Don't think parrot fish are any different to any CA cichlid when it comes down to aggression. You get mild mannered ones and very aggressive ones, and a lot in between.

 

[duanes]

Since BPs are simply mutant, deformed line bred strains, of midlevils, I don't see why their attitude would be much different from any Amphilophine.
If they came from any of my cichlid spawns, I would have culled them.
Guess that's why my bank account is meager, and I need to live modestly, never quite got the commercial end of things.

 

[RD.]

I'd like to see you say that to her face, Duane. lol

 

[RD.]

BTW - for you non mutant/deformed line bred fish keepers, it's not just the aggression level, in BP's how much damage a fish can inflict is typically due to the shape of the mouth. It doesn't matter how aggro a fish is, if the potential for a serious bite isn't there. A standard BP has a beak shaped mouth, which does not fully close. Some can be so deformed in this area that it makes it difficult to feed. Not the case in the specimen that I showed above.

Not all BP are created equally, even though their genetics all point back to A. citrinellus x V. synspilum cross. The fish that I showed above is a hybrid cross, but is not deformed. So watch your mouth, Duane.

 

[HybridFinatic]

Agreed. My old blood parrots mouth was not as deformed as most and couldn’t fully close its mouth but it could still give a mean bite and had lots of teeth and upon that was on the very aggressive side. Beat up my jack dempsey and red devil into submission. Really not any different from any other amphilophus.

 

[FINWIN]

My Patch (avatar) has a triangle mouth BUT she has lips you can see in her profile. Her lips are thick and go back and she scrapes her teeth against stuff. Bitten a hole in one of her nets and leaps out of the water to bite my arm if I'm cleaning out her eggs.

 

[FINWIN]

Since BPs are simply mutant, deformed line bred strains, of midlevils, I don't see why their attitude would be much different from any Amphilophine.
If they came from any of my cichlid spawns, I would have culled them.
Guess that's why my bank account is meager, and I need to live modestly, never quite got the commercial end of things.

Welp, you're perfectly welcome to test that idea about deformity...feel free to swirl your arm in my female parrot's tank!