# Help out the new kid?



## alexisonfire92 (Apr 10, 2009)

Hey everyone, I'm Nicole and I'm new here and new to having tropical fish. Until recently I've only had fantail goldfish and a beta but during a trip to walmart about a month and a half ago (i know, i know) i came across $15 baby Blood Parrots and decided I had to have one. I got a heater and put him by himself in my 2.5 gallon tank which I previously used for my goldfish. His name is Fred haha. I know he needs a bigger tank but it's all I had and he's only about 2 inches and he's by himself. So yesterday I upgraded to a 10g which I set up this morning and I'm currently just giving the heater and filter time to run.
My questions are: 1) What other fish could I put in with him? I prefer fish who are brightly coloured but am against artifical dying. (basically I dont want anything big and ugly that looks like food) I saw a yellow lab about a week ago and thought it was pretty cute. he was maybe 1.5 inches. could he go in with fred?
2) how many fish should I be able to put in my 10 gallon tanks without it being too crowded?
3) this may sound like a really dumb question so i apologize in advance but the backgrounds that they sell on the roll at petsmart, those go on the outside of the tank at the back, not the inside right?
4) another stupid question, how do you pronounce the word "cichlid"? I've been saying chi-ch-lid but i'm pretty sure thats wrong.

thanks in advance for your help.


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## raggs715 (Mar 6, 2009)

hello nicole,

be warned you are going to get harassed for having this fish in a 10gallon, that parrott can get to the size of that tank in no time you should get at minimum 55 gallon....Best adivce i can give is GO SLOW and read the entire library on this website... this is a wealth of knowledge, you can easily do it right thw 1st time, a yellow lab also requires different water then a parrott.... so please read before you get more into the hobby...if you can only house a 10 galon tank return the parrott and get some tetras and neons.... or read about shell dwelers cichlids in the 10 gallon reference in the library

the backround go on the outside...save yourself the money and buy black poster board from the supermarket and use that

its pronounced sic-lid....


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## alexisonfire92 (Apr 10, 2009)

thanks for your reply. no need for harrassment. if he gets bigger, i will gladly either get a bigger tank or trade him in for a smaller fish but seeing as how he is only 2 inches at the moment, I think 10 gallons is plenty. actually, when i called the local aquarium store they told me that although 10 gallons is the minimum, it is in fact sufficient.


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## alexisonfire92 (Apr 10, 2009)

i also saw a yellow lab at walmart so now i'm curious as to what makes its needs different from a blood parrot? so assuming i get a bigger tank, what other fish can I put in with my blood parrot?


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

I'll first start out by telling my story as it's been about a year now since I joined these forums.

A year ago (give or take) I bought a 38 Gallon tank off of craigslist. I knew about needing to cycle the tank first so after I did that I went to petsmart and picked out some nice colorful African Cichlids. Before I had each one bagged I asked if they would do well together in a 38 Gallon tank - the answer every time was yes.

It was after I came here that I realized that my tank was too small and my stocking list was horrid (Malawi Pike Cichlid, Kenyi and everything else that went under the Assortment category). With the advice that was given, and after much reading on the library here I found out that I now knew more then the guys at Petsmart (and most fish stores) and restocked my tank correctly.

I am now up to 3 x 55 Gallon Tanks and I'm picking up a 4th tomorrow (craigslist special, $30!). So I too know the limitation on tank size - I rent a small house and even though I"d love to have a 100 Gallon or bigger tank, there is literally not a single place where I could put it.

So it's with that knowledge that I can safely say is how you intend to use this forum, these resources is entirely up to you. However a 10 Gallon tank isn't suitable AT ALL for your current stock list let alone another fish. You need to buy the tank and then figure out what you can house in it instead of the other way around.

You see to the people on this forum (me included) we just don't want to throw a colorful pet fish in a small bowl and hope that he survives. We want to do what's best for our fish as they are our pets. If you feel the same way then the best advice I can give you is to bring the fish back tomorrow and start reading up on all the different kinds of fish through the profile if cichlids is your thing. Also, there are some great cookie cutter setups in the Library that deserve a read as well.

And like mentioned, make sure to keep into consideration water parameters and tank mates before adding any fish to a tank.


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## alexisonfire92 (Apr 10, 2009)

I dont think you guys understand. i have baby fish. one baby fish. thats it. its a 2 inch blood parrot. he likes to hangout in a tea cup that i put in his tank. i dont know if you guys think i'm an animal abuser or whatever but i have a house full of pets that are treated better than most people are. i understand that these fish can grow to be upwards of 10 inches and like i said, i'll take care of that when and if it happens but at the moment its a 2 inches baby fish. when i ask about tank mates, i'm not concerned about a lack of space but rather that they wont fight/eat each other. i think some people take this a bit too seriously.


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

Cichlids are srs bsns. Especially on this forum, as long as you're willing to re-home it in 6-8 months I don't see a problem keeping it in a 10 for the time being. That being said it won't fair well with a yellow lab.


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## alexisonfire92 (Apr 10, 2009)

thank you darkside for your reasonable response. out of sheer curiousity, why cant blood parrots and yellow labs be housed together?


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## earth intruder (Oct 14, 2008)

It's good to hear that you'll be upgrading to a larger tank. That little baby will get very big, probably faster than you expect!

Blood parrots shouldn't be kept with most other cichlids - they're not equipped to deal with aggressive fish. I would avoid keeping any mbuna (the yellow lab) with him.

This article lists some tankmates: http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/cichl ... parrot.htm

IMO, I wouldn't add any other fish to the 10 gallon until you've already got a larger tank lined up.


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## raggs715 (Mar 6, 2009)

As far as tank mates, when you do upgrade i would go with a colony of parrots, with maybe a few cat fish or a minimu of 3 clown loaches, no less then a 55 gallon though... you can get varietys of different parrot fish blue, green, red, yellow, pink, gold, teal....pretty cool llooking IMO, also look into Rams, My friend has had luck with parrots and German And golden rams.


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

alexisonfire92 said:


> I dont think you guys understand. i have baby fish. one baby fish. thats it. its a 2 inch blood parrot. he likes to hangout in a tea cup that i put in his tank. i dont know if you guys think i'm an animal abuser or whatever but i have a house full of pets that are treated better than most people are. i understand that these fish can grow to be upwards of 10 inches and like i said, i'll take care of that when and if it happens but at the moment its a 2 inches baby fish. when i ask about tank mates, i'm not concerned about a lack of space but rather that they wont fight/eat each other. i think some people take this a bit too seriously.


Well, I really don't understand the way yu come and reply, iF yu're a beginner then listen to the reasonable advices yu may find here on the site. First of all, the blood parrot is an hybrid of 2 species, it's have been created for commercial reason and don't live in the wild. Keep it alone in yur 10 gallon tank and please don't search to add other fish? yur volume is sufficient for one fish only, even if it's small baby. Secondly if yu want to keep cichlids, yu'll have to learn before doing anything. As said before, read to see what kind of fish yu'll house, in what condition and in what tank size, without doing this, I don't see how yu can begin to keep cichlids.
the fishes are living animals, before keeping them, we have to know what is necessary to keep them the best way we can
xris  .


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

alexisonfire92 said:


> I dont think you guys understand. i have baby fish. one baby fish. thats it. its a 2 inch blood parrot. he likes to hangout in a tea cup that i put in his tank. i dont know if you guys think i'm an animal abuser or whatever but i have a house full of pets that are treated better than most people are. i understand that these fish can grow to be upwards of 10 inches and like i said, i'll take care of that when and if it happens but at the moment its a 2 inches baby fish. when i ask about tank mates, i'm not concerned about a lack of space but rather that they wont fight/eat each other. i think some people take this a bit too seriously.


Well, I really don't understand the way yu come and reply, iF yu're a beginner then listen to the reasonable advices yu may find here on the site. First of all, the blood parrot is an hybrid of 2 species, it's have been created for commercial reason and don't live in the wild. Keep it alone in yur 10 gallon tank and please don't search to add other fish? yur volume is sufficient for one fish only, even if it's small baby. Secondly if yu want to keep cichlids, yu'll have to learn before doing anything. As said before, read to see what kind of fish yu'll house, in what condition and in what tank size, without doing this, I don't see how yu can begin to keep cichlids.
the fishes are living animals, before keeping them, we have to know what is necessary to keep them the best way we can
xris  .


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

Sorry I posted twice, may be we can delete the second post. Thank you.
xris


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## Neolamprologus Marco (Jan 14, 2008)

People here are HARDCORE about the hobby. Nicole is only looking for some FRIENDLY input. I think its good advice to keep that fish by itself in the 10 gallon. If you're into it,do some reading,there is alot of good info here. If you're anything like the people here,you'll be getting a 55 soon and asking for stocking advice.(go with n brichardi in the 55,lotso babies)


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

Hey Nicole, Welcome to the forum. Like Neolmap.Marco said, people here are "hardcore" :lol: about fishkepping. I don't think anyone was being mean or anything...just giving their opinions and that's what you posted for, right? That being said, I'll tell you what I know of blood parrots which isn't much :roll: . My grandson has one that he's had for about a year. It's in a 10g. tank, maybe a little bigger and doesn't need a bigger tank yet (in my opinion). He has a few (3-4) tropical fish in with it. One I think is a danio? and a couple different kind of what I think are tetras. I gave him a guppy too but it disappeared. Oh, and he has some kind of little algea eater (not a pleco). He feeds 3 different foods. A pellet for the BP, flake for the tropicals and wafers for the algea eater. Like I said, he's had it about a year so I'd say you have some time to get a bigger tank. I hope you don't get discouraged with the group but use it for info and learn from it. It's really a fantastic group.


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## alexisonfire92 (Apr 10, 2009)

Dewdrop said:


> Hey Nicole, Welcome to the forum. Like Neolmap.Marco said, people here are "hardcore" :lol: about fishkepping. I don't think anyone was being mean or anything...just giving their opinions and that's what you posted for, right? That being said, I'll tell you what I know of blood parrots which isn't much :roll: . My grandson has one that he's had for about a year. It's in a 10g. tank, maybe a little bigger and doesn't need a bigger tank yet (in my opinion). He has a few (3-4) tropical fish in with it. One I think is a danio? and a couple different kind of what I think are tetras. I gave him a guppy too but it disappeared. Oh, and he has some kind of little algea eater (not a pleco). He feeds 3 different foods. A pellet for the BP, flake for the tropicals and wafers for the algea eater. Like I said, he's had it about a year so I'd say you have some time to get a bigger tank. I hope you don't get discouraged with the group but use it for info and learn from it. It's really a fantastic group.


thanks, thats very helpful. i realize that people here are "hardcore" about fish keeping. I however am not and as Neolamprologus Marco put it, i'm only looking for some friendly input. I'm trying to be very cautious about tank mates because I'd feel aweful if a little living creature I brought into my home was eaten and attack by another. I realize that with fish it is common and almost accepted that bigger fish will eat smaller fish but I'd feel responsible for the loss of a life if that happened. :fish:


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