Freshwater Parrotfish Fry and Adults, March 5, 2001 Photos

We picked up five approximately one month old parrots at the LFS because we were relatively convinced that these "runts" just wouldn't make it. They were being out-competed by their siblings and were undernourished and their fins were in poor condition.

After growing up in our "fry paradise" tanks they have been thriving and much to our surprise yesterday, we found that they have managed to spawn! The first fry was spotted during a water change and as the Parrots share a 75E with our Tigers, Rosies, Bleeding Hearts and Serpaes we naturally wanted to get the fry out of there ASAP!

We managed to collect seven tiny parrotfish and quickly set up one of our 2-1/2 gallon utility tanks for them. They can't be more than a week old and readily accept brine shrimp nauplii as evidenced by their orange, full little bellies!

These Parrots are supposedly a cross between a Red Devil and Green Terror Severums. Ours look nothing like either and don't share the temperments either. They're fun fish to watch and seem to coexist with semi-aggressive species well. Note the coloration in the shot with the Rosy Barb!