Parrot Fish Query

[justjon]

Hi there,

A family member has had a lonesome parrot fish for many years, it's now in a 120L Tank and is about 6-7 years old (stopped growing).

We tried putting a few platy's in with it, unfortunately one of them got attacked and died, anything smaller also becomes lunch.

What could we put in with this? We've seen something that's labelled a "Bluey Lobster" in a tropical tank at a LFS, but i'm thinking it'll be too hard to take care of (Family member is not too fish-enthuesiastic).

Any suggestions would be appreciated - We also saw some Silver Sharks which were mixed with Parrots, and a mix of Cichilids aswell - don't want to have anything that'll outgrow the tank.

Thanks!

 

[Athena]

Hi - I'm presuming you're referring to the parrot cichlids and, if so, I think you need a pretty large tank to mix cichlid varieties together and even then it doesn't always work. I suppose as it's not in a mated pair there won't be the aggression associated with spawning and protecting fry, so if you were to put other fish in with him it would have to be something of a decent enough size not to be mistaken for food! So, no to guppies/platies etc

Cichlids are quite territorial so, again, when adding anything to this tank you'd need to bear that in mind and create a natural divide e.g. with plants.

I'd say no to the silver sharks as they just grow too huge and in a 120L tank you'd have to rehome them in the future.

You might get more response from the Hybrid section of this forum if you post your query there.

Regards - Athena