My new H. psittacus made quite an entrance this week

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ryansmith83

ryansmith83

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May 2, 2008
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I got six tiny H. psittacus fry from Ken Davis this week. They're no wider than my thumb, probably 1" total from head to tail. I put them in a 20 gallon quarantine tank with a 4" male bristlenose pleco. The pleco has been a "babysitter" for me since I moved into my house a year ago. I keep him in fry tanks to help with the slime and leftover brine shrimp. He was fat and happy with my month-old severum fry right up until the day the psittacus came...

Then I wake up the day after receiving the parrots and he was dead, stripped of his eyes and all of his fins (he was a long-finned variety). :confused: I know people have said that parrots can be pushy, but do they usually murder other fish? I didn't even know fry that small could damage or kill a pleco.

Should this make me reconsider mixing them with my other cichlids as they grow? I don't want them to mow down my severums.
 
ryansmith83;3804938; said:
I got six tiny H. psittacus fry from Ken Davis this week. They're no wider than my thumb, probably 1" total from head to tail. I put them in a 20 gallon quarantine tank with a 4" male bristlenose pleco. The pleco has been a "babysitter" for me since I moved into my house a year ago. I keep him in fry tanks to help with the slime and leftover brine shrimp. He was fat and happy with my month-old severum fry right up until the day the psittacus came...

Then I wake up the day after receiving the parrots and he was dead, stripped of his eyes and all of his fins (he was a long-finned variety). :confused: I know people have said that parrots can be pushy, but do they usually murder other fish? I didn't even know fry that small could damage or kill a pleco.

Should this make me reconsider mixing them with my other cichlids as they grow? I don't want them to mow down my severums.
Click to expand...

really?? wow....I had a batch a year ago that were older siblings of these. They weren't particularly violent...that's amazing!
 
Sorry for the loss, I love my Plecos, they are very cool.

Seems odd, My parrots are feisty, but I have never witnesed anything like that. I would wonder if the Pleco died, and the parrots just picked on it afterwards.

My tank is 75g
2 Green Terrors 7" ea
2 JDs 5" ea
3 Parrots 2"-5"
1 Sailfin Pleco 9"

Bear
 
^ It just seems odd. The pleco was feisty and healthy. I moved my baby severums to a larger tank the morning that I got the psittacus, then gave the psittacus the 20 gallon. The pleco was active throughout the day and ate that night (he picked up a bunch of the bloodworms I'd given to the psittacus and then went for one of his pleco wafers). I turned all the lights in the fish room out around 11pm, then the next morning at 9:30 he was dead. His whole head was completely hollowed out... it looks like they got in through his eye sockets or gills and ate him from the inside out. :eek:

I have other plecos but I'm afraid to drop another one in. :ROFL:
 
thats weird. i grew out 5 from about the same size in a 20g and i had no problems. i didn't have them with anything else though. once they were 3-4" i moved them to my 125g i had just set up. after that their growth exploded but never violent towards other fish. even now my 11" psittacus is good with everyone in the tank

on a side note, aren't they cute at that size :D these were mine from last september. i have one and jamie has atleast two.

2.jpg

1.jpg
 
i think mine are from the same batch and they have not messed with any other fish at all since i got them. they are around 2" and one maybe slightly bigger.
 
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