# Dwarf blood parrot fish



## chrys_03 (Feb 11, 2009)

Anybody here who owns this kind of fish? Been scouring the net for any info but there seems to be none. I've seen it on a LFS and I would like to know more about the fish before I buy. They looked exactly like the tailless Blood parrot but only smaller.

Any info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.


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## king oz (Jun 27, 2007)

never seen a dwarf parrot. they have mutant everything now though. rams, sword tails, I have even seen short body gourmis, anyway it is still a parrot right? prob gonna dig up plants.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

yup- and IMO best not to encourage breeders to produce such fish. Most people have no idea they are hybrids and are bred to look the way they do so people buy them. They aren't natural and would likely look like a big red ball in a nice green plant tank. 

Sorry, I'm a fish person and these fish really rub me the wrong way not to mention that retailers take advantage of people's inexperience/lack of knowledge and sell them anyways. Bah. 

Otherwise, I've never heard of dwarfs though I wouldn't be surprised if they were out there somewhere. If you know what the fish are an sincerely like them anyways, there are forum upon forum dedicated to these specific fish.

GL!


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

The regular sized Parrot fish will do anything they feel like doing. Dig, uproot plants, chase other fish, lay eggs, act funny, get painfully shy.

Basically it's a pitbull running free.

Usually people keep them in tanks with strudy decoration. You decide if you want to deal with the dwarfs if they turn out to be crazy.

--Nikolay


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## bsmith (Dec 13, 2006)

I have had full grown BP's in a planted tank for years. They keep each other busy. There in a tank with dwarf plecos and cory catfish. I have never had any aggression problems with them. They actually have quite a personality. I used to have one that followed my wife around everywhere (as ling as it was in the tank) and would watche her watching it in front of the tank.

I dont want to get into a debate about cross breeding, genetics and stem sells but these are nice albeit strange looking fish that are intersting pets at the least.

Edit: BTW, if I could get some dwarf BP's I would be all over them. Maybe they were just being sold as dwarfs? The babies look just like adults when they are small they are usually just grey or brow untill they reach adulthood.


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## king oz (Jun 27, 2007)

Six said:


> yup- and IMO best not to encourage breeders to produce such fish. Most people have no idea they are hybrids and are bred to look the way they do so people buy them. They aren't natural and would likely look like a big red ball in a nice green plant tank.
> 
> Sorry, I'm a fish person and these fish really rub me the wrong way not to mention that retailers take advantage of people's inexperience/lack of knowledge and sell them anyways. Bah.
> 
> ...


they are not actually hybrids/crosses, but selectively breed for mutations. still not a cool practice in my book.


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## bsmith (Dec 13, 2006)

They are actually a sterile cross breed between a red devil and a gold sevrum. 



king oz said:


> they are not actually hybrids/crosses, but selectively breed for mutations. still not a cool practice in my book.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

I think the consensus is there are no dwarfs yet. Maybe they are just another red fish they call "dwarf blood parrot"- as I said, there's so much misinformation out there just to get people to buy buy buy. And well, can you blame 'um? (I do...!)


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

I just found this:

http://parrotcichlid.com/history

I don't quite understand some of the things in that article (creating purple and green fish, breeding fish with acquired injuries and getting "injured" looking offspring) but it gives an idea how parrot fish came to be.

--Nikolay


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## bsmith (Dec 13, 2006)

Those look like flower horns.

These are the ones I have.

Blood Parrot



niko said:


> I just found this:
> 
> http://parrotcichlid.com/history
> 
> ...


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## trackhazard (Sep 20, 2006)

Those are the same as in Niko's link.

Parrots are bred for a number of different physical characteristics. The first one on that link is bred for the nuchal hump (or kok in flowerhorn speak) which is desirable in some buddhist traditions as symbols of prosperity.

They are breeding short bodied red parrots that some fish stores may be calling dwarves. They retain similar girth as regular parrots but are much shorter in length.

Charlie


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## bsmith (Dec 13, 2006)

Good to know. Do you know if BP's are related to Flowerhorns in any way.



trackhazard said:


> Those are the same as in Niko's link.
> 
> Parrots are bred for a number of different physical characteristics. The first one on that link is bred for the nuchal hump (or kok in flowerhorn speak) which is desirable in some buddhist traditions as symbols of prosperity.
> 
> ...


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## trackhazard (Sep 20, 2006)

Flowerhorn is typically thought to be a combination of trimac (Amphilophus trimaculatum) and midas cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellum) bred for specific physical traits.

Red Parrots are thought to be a mishmash of almost anything from severum (Heros severus), midas, red devil (Ampholophus labiatus) and other central and south american cichlids.

Charlie


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