# my new blood parrots won't come out for food!



## meaghan (Mar 19, 2013)

Hello cichlid lovers,
Three days ago I purchased two blood parrots (roughly two inches in size) and when I first brought them home - for the first hour or so - they were swimming all over happy as can be, but now, they have been hiding for three days straight! They are coming out of hiding when no one is around as I can see them moving around when I first approach the aquarium but as soon as they see me they dart off back into hiding. I know this is normal behavior for even up to the first couple of months but my concern is that they are not coming out even for food! I tried leading them up to the top with my hand and they seem interested but still won't follow it up to the food. I have tried pellets, specifically for cichlids, as well as bloodworms, which I have heard they go crazy for, but with no success. I am starting to worry that they are going to starve! All of my water readings are totally normal and I am maintaining a consistent temp of 82 in my aquarium so I am at a loss as to why they are not eating. I'm sure when they are starving they will come for food but I really don't want it to get to that point. Any suggestions on how I can coax them up to the top are much appreciated. Btw, their names are baloo and scrappy pete...amazing, right!?


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## CrypticLifeStyle (Dec 14, 2009)

Lower the temp to 78, just curious. But yeah obviously they are stressed. They can, well most fish can go a couple weeks w/o food. A lot of my ca/sa fish do when they have babies. I would also feed them once a day too til they get out of their zone so your not feeding waste, but also to draw them out a little by having that one chance to eat that day, and they will learn that. If you get close to 2 weeks then I'll start coming up with plan B, force feeding  but I Dont think you'll get to that.


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## TnAWill (Feb 14, 2013)

From what I've experienced with the 2 I have they can be very skittish. They need a lot of hiding places as they tend to get teritorial and have a "favorite" hiding spot they retreat to. I've also noticed that bright lighting seems to scare them off in the beginning, a lower lighting affect calms them down and as stated previously lowering the temp is a great idea! if you want a place that has a lot of good keeper articles and stories check out this site. http://parrotcichlid.com good source of info! Good luck and keep us posted!


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## Azedenkae (Apr 19, 2012)

What is the size of the tank (please give dimensions) and what other inhabitants are there?


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## meaghan (Mar 19, 2013)

CrypticLifeStyle said:


> then I'll start coming up with plan B, force feeding


 ahahahaha, well, hopefully we don't come to that. I have lowered the temp to 80 for the time being, I didn't want to lower it too much as I didn't want to shock them anymore then they already appear to be. I have set up my aquarium (a 36 gal. bowfront) very nicely with lots of big rocks and driftwood for them to hide around...I did do SOME research lol and they have definitely established their favorite hiding spots. It does have LED lighting so maybe that is too much for them right now. The only other things I have in there are one plecko and a couple of assassin snails...I had a huge pond snail outbreak a couple of weeks ago. But that's it. The whole aquarium is theirs to enjoy. Thank you for the website, I will check it out!


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## Azedenkae (Apr 19, 2012)

Ah, THAT'S why. Seems like classic lonely cichlid syndrome. With many cichlids, the lack of dithers will make them shy and hide away. It's a very common issue with cichlids. Eventually they'll come out (to be honest I don't see why we're lowering temps, they're just shy) once they're used to the tank and understand that there is no danger. You can add dithers to speed up the process tho.


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## CrypticLifeStyle (Dec 14, 2009)

Azedenkae said:


> (to be honest I don't see why we're lowering temps, they're just shy)


Curiosity as i've seen it work before. Something about their metabolism slowing down which tends to relax them more.


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