Anybody keep true Parrot Cichlids (Hoplarchus psittacus)

[Bderick67]

Hoplarchus psittacus

Well my LFS has a pair that are 6-7" and a single male 8". I like the fish, thier looks and also like the fact that they are not that common. I've been doing some research(which sucks ya gotta sort through all the Blood parrot crap) and I am find lots of varied info. Did a search here on MFK and found only a small amount.

Sounds like they may be hard to breed, Anyone have experience in this. Also saw some reports on this fish getting to 18" but most say 12". Variations on how aggressive too.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

 

[dovii88]

peanut has some ..they do get large..and from wat i have heard they are not that aggressive probly species conspefic....i would get them

 

[polomax24]

Yes, I have a large one and two medium ones. They were outgoing when they were young but now they like to hide. They pretty much eat everything that is dropped into the tank. IMO, they are very hardy fish. They are not overly aggressive but they can their own in a semi-aggressive setup. I would not mix them with any super aggressive cichlids. They used to very hard to find but now with some cash you can easily acquire them.

 

[dovii88]

sounds cool

 

[cartersvillealex]

I have 5, 3 adults and 2 little juvies. They tend to be aggressive amongst themselves, but not too bad towards anything else. My "pair" are about 8" each and there is a small altum angel in the tank that they dont pay any attention to, but they fight each other occasionally. They take a long time to mature. There is an article by Wayne Leibel about spawning them and he had to seperate his pair to spawn them. They were a couple of years old at the time. I have heard 18" as well, but have not seen any that big. They seem to do well with large less aggressive cichlids like uaru or severums, and even cichla.

 

[Bderick67]

I lke them, but the price is holding me back $200 for the pair and $85 for the single male.

 

[jonie]

seen one at a place i visit in west yorkshire, it was 5" and the thing that stopped me buying it was it had hth disease other than that it was a gorgeus fish, go for it mate, very nice fish and not common at all

 

[cartersvillealex]

seen one at a place i visit in west yorkshire, it was 5" and the thing that stopped me buying it was it had hth disease other than that it was a gorgeus fish, go for it mate, very nice fish and not common at all

I have noticed that they get HITH pretty easily, but it goes away pretty easily as well. Just dont miss any water changes. I have been soaking their pellets in vita-chem and any HITH is gone. The wild caughts seem to be more prone to it than the F1s that I have.

 

[K C]

I have a 5" kept in its own tank. How can I make it less skittish, any suggestion? I feed mine bloodworm and pre-soak pellets, what do you guys feed them?

 

[cartersvillealex]

You need some dither fish to get them less skittish. When I kept one in a tank with some bichirs, it was outgoing, then when I took them out, he hid in the corner the whole time. I moved him into a tank with some silver dollars and a pbass and he rules the tank. I feed mine pellets, bloodworms, and mysis. I am going to start working on adding more vegetables into the mix.