Hybrid Parrot Cichlids

Blood parrots are one of the most recognizable fish in the hobby and one of the most misunderstood. They are a man-made hybrid, they have a mouth that does not work like a normal cichlid's, and their color depends almost entirely on what you feed them. Here is what to know before you take one home.

What they are

The blood parrot is a hybrid developed in Taiwan in the 1980s, generally understood to come from crossing Central American cichlids — most accounts point to a midas or severum crossed with a redhead cichlid. It is not a wild species and there is no wild population. Everything downstream of it — king kongs, yuan bao, panda parrots, platinum parrots, polar blue crosses, and the flowerhorn-parrot crosses — is a further selection or hybridization of that line.

They are prized in feng shui for the rounded body and red color, which is why they sit alongside flowerhorns in that tradition. The yuan bao form is named for its resemblance to the gold ingot.

The mouth

The defining feature, and the one with practical consequences. A blood parrot's jaw is malformed and cannot close fully. They feed by a kind of suction and they are slow and clumsy about it. In a community tank with quick surface feeders they lose out.

Feed accordingly: slow-sinking pellets sized for the fish, given time, and watch that each parrot is actually getting food. A parrot that looks thin in a well-fed tank is a feeding-mechanics problem, not a food-quality problem.

Color comes from diet

Red and orange in these fish are carotenoid-based, and carotenoids come from food. A parrot fed a plain flake diet fades toward pale orange over months; the same fish on a quality color-enhancing pellet containing astaxanthin or spirulina holds deep red. This is the single biggest lever you have over how the fish looks, and it is reversible in both directions.

Be wary of artificially dyed fish sold elsewhere — the intensely purple, blue and green "jellybean" parrots are usually injected or dip-dyed, the color fades within months, and the process is hard on the fish. Natural color variation in these hybrids runs through red, orange, gold, cream and the darker patterned crosses. If a color looks like a highlighter, ask questions.

Tank and temperament

They reach around eight inches and they are stocky. One adult wants at least thirty gallons; a small group wants fifty-five or more, with footprint mattering more than height. Keep them warm — high 70s to low 80s Fahrenheit — and filtered well, because they are messy eaters by design.

Temperament is mild for a cichlid. They are shy rather than aggressive, and they do better with cover and caves than in an open tank. Housed with genuinely aggressive tankmates they will be bullied and will hide; housed with small fish they will eventually eat them. Similar-sized, even-tempered cichlids and robust community fish work best.

Breeding

Males are usually sterile. Females will pair up, spawn and tend eggs that never hatch, which is normal and not a health problem. Some crosses back to parent species do produce viable fry — the flowerhorn and convict crosses on this page exist for that reason.

Body forms

Short-bodied and balloon forms have a compressed body cavity, and with it a higher rate of swim bladder and digestive trouble. They are perfectly keepable but benefit from sinking food rather than floating, and from not being overfed.

Stock changes weekly

Parrot varieties rotate constantly and the XL specimens in particular move fast. Call ahead if you are driving in for a specific variety. Both stores test water for free, and if you are setting up for a parrot or thinking about the feng shui pairing with a flowerhorn, come talk it through — see also our flowerhorn cichlids and the deeper archive at Flowerhorn.Co.