CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Appearance and living habits of blood parrot fish

Appearance and living habits of blood parrot fish

In terms of appearance, the blood parrot fish is bright red, with a chubby body and soft fins, and the color is bright red, which is very pleasing. The adult body is 15-20 cm long, with a wide and thick body and an oval body. The body color of the juvenile fish is grayish white, and the adult fish is bloated, pink or blood red.

Blood parrot fish are easy to keep. They eat everything, including feed, bloodworms, small fish, etc. However, you must disinfect them when feeding them live bait. Blood parrot fish are not only easy to feed and not picky, but also have strong adaptability. They can adapt to water quality from weakly acidic to neutral, so fish lovers don’t have to worry about not being able to keep them alive.

appearance

Blood Parrot is commonly known as Red God of Wealth or God of Wealth Fish. It is bright red, with a chubby body and soft fins. It is very pleasing to the eye. Adults are 15-20 cm long, with a broad and oval body.

The juvenile fish is grayish white, and the adult fish is bloated and pink or blood red. Blood parrots are strong and sturdy, and they eat almost everything, such as artificial bait, flakes, pellets, bloodworms, brine shrimp, water lice, etc. Because of their wide range of diets and their constant eating, plus their strong adaptability to water quality, it is easy to keep them alive.

Living habits

1. Food

Blood parrots are strong and sturdy. They eat almost everything, such as artificial bait, flakes, pellets, bloodworms, brine shrimp, water lice, etc. They are like a garbage can, accepting everything. And they always eat all day long. In addition, they have a strong adaptability to water quality and can survive well in water quality from weak acid to neutral. So it is easy to keep them alive.

In the early days, it was said that "blood parrots must eat shrimps to have a rosy color!" This idea is quite correct. Because the "astaxanthin" in shrimps can promote the blood parrot's body color. If it can fully ingest astaxanthin, the blood parrot's body color will be bright red in the near future. However, nowadays, it is no longer so troublesome. Many blood parrot feeds available in the market have astaxanthin and "β-carotene" added to them. Just feeding them directly can keep the blood parrot's body color bright red.

Growth environment

Blood parrots and general South and Central American cichlids require similar growth conditions, and blood parrots also require weak water with low hardness. However, because blood parrots are born with a healed mouth (especially special A-level and A-level blood parrots), they have less than half the ability to introduce water through the gills for breathing. Therefore, the breathing function of the gills has become an obvious "fatal injury"! Once the gills are injured or the process of absorbing oxygen is not smooth, it will directly affect the physiological health of the blood parrot. Therefore, when raising blood parrots, it is necessary to maintain better water quality and provide sufficient oxygen more than other fish. In particular, it is quite important to reduce the dissolved nutrients in the water, avoid the proliferation of bacteria and cause gill diseases, and maintain the ability of gill cells to effectively absorb oxygen.

Temperature control

Blood parrots are a very temperature-sensitive fish species, the point is not

The reason is that the fish body has a very poor adaptability to temperature, and it is because in low water temperature and drastic water temperature changes, it is easy to lose its bright body color due to physiological reactions, and even worse, black stripes or spots will appear. Using a heater to raise the water temperature to 25-28℃ can make the fish show bright body color and vitality. Fish that live in low water temperature for a long time are not only in poor health, but also prone to illness and death. I believe this is not what players want to see!

Landscaping in water

For these fish with bright red and single color, in addition to color matching and avoiding the use of plants as landscaping materials, the landscaping in the water also needs to consider the force of the fish's impact, so the sturdiness of the landscaping is also a must!

There are many landscapes worth mentioning for your reference. One is the driftwood or the driftwood of grown moss, which is usually placed in the center of the aquarium. It matches the bright red color of the blood parrot and has a stronger contrast effect. The second is the underwater landscape made of petrified wood or rocks. It is often placed in the aquarium in the form of a single or multiple stone piles. Of course, the aquarium must be large enough to have more choices and changes.

Tips for mixed breeding

Many families and companies like to raise a group of blood parrots in their aquariums. It is a spectacular and touching sight to see a group of healthy blood parrots swimming in the aquarium. However, there is another group of people who like mixed aquariums. This is also a matter of personal preference. When choosing mixed fish species, it is strongly recommended to choose some cichlids from Central and South America! Especially some medium and large cichlids.

Because the blood parrot's body is approximately triangular and its mouth cannot be closed, its aggressiveness is reduced (it can only attack but not bite), you can choose fish such as Golden Pineapple, Black Cloud, Red Pearl Guandao, and Pearl Firemouth to match it. In addition to having a variety of body color combinations, you can also achieve a state of peaceful coexistence under a certain balance.

Breeding Tips

Although blood parrot fish can lay eggs, they will not hatch because they are a hybrid of two species of fish, just like the offspring of a donkey and a horse, they are infertile. Even if the female fish lays eggs, they cannot hatch. However, if you are interested and insist on breeding blood parrot fish, you can try to add a few male fish such as birthday stars, red devils, and purple-red firemouths, that is, prepare red devils, birthday stars, purple-red firemouths, etc. for the female fish, and then you may be able to breed.

Budgie's habits

Budgies like to eat shelled feed. Usually, they should be mainly fed with millet, barnyard grass, millet or egg millet. They should be fed some green vegetables every day, and oyster powder or bone powder should be used as regular feed (you can also put a whole piece of cuttlefish bone in the cage for them to peck at). Budgies reach sexual maturity at 4 months old and begin to estrus and can be bred as breeding birds. Budgies can breed all year round. Generally, each nest can produce 4 to 7 eggs. The eggs are white and one egg is laid every day or every other day. When the third egg is laid, the female bird starts to sit in the nest to incubate. The incubation is mainly carried out by the female bird, and the incubation period is 18 days. Male and female parents raise chicks together. The incubation period is about 30 days. The female bird is more sensitive to external interference during the incubation period. Try to keep the environment quiet to prevent the parent bird from abandoning the nest after being frightened, which affects the incubation and raising of chicks. The room temperature of breeding birds in winter should be kept above 20℃, and the relative humidity should be 45% to 50%. Keep the indoor air ventilated. The peak breeding period of budgies can reach 3 to 4 years, after which the breeding rate gradually decreases. In order to purify and rejuvenate the breeding population, the breeding birds should be continuously updated.

The average life span of budgies is 7 years. They can be used as breeding birds. Budgies can breed all year round. Generally, each nest can produce 4 to 7 white eggs, and one egg is laid every day or every other day. When the third egg is laid, the female bird begins to sit on the nest to incubate. The female bird is mainly responsible for incubation, and the incubation period is 18 days. Male and female parents raise chicks together, and the incubation period is about 30 days. Female birds are more sensitive to external interference during the incubation period. Try to keep the environment quiet to prevent the parent birds from abandoning the nest after being frightened, which will affect hatching and raising chicks. The room temperature of breeding birds in winter should be kept above 20℃, and the relative humidity should be 45% to 50%. Keep the indoor air circulating.

The peak breeding period of budgies can reach 3 to 4 years, and the breeding rate will gradually decline thereafter. In order to purify and rejuvenate the breeding flock, the breeding birds should be continuously updated. The average life span of budgies is 7 years. Cockatiels are strong, disease-resistant, and resistant to roughage. They are easier to raise and breed, and rarely die under normal breeding conditions. But be careful not to stop eating or drinking, and the feed should not be too monotonous. As ornamental birds or trained birds, they can also be raised on parrot racks. Because they are good at climbing and like to chew wood, metal cages should be used for the breeding of cockatiels. The breeding cage size of each pair of cockatiels is 60 cm long, 45 cm wide, and 40 cm high. The perch should be made of hardwood or hard branches with a diameter of about 2 cm. The drinking and water utensils should be strong and stable to prevent them from being bitten or kicked over. The nest box can be made of plywood into a closed nest box, with a size of 30 cm long, 20 cm wide and 16 cm high. It is best to add a 5 cm high partition in the middle, open a 6-7 cm entrance and exit hole on the front of the nest box, and pad it with sawdust. It is best to use a metal tray for the sandbox. Clean the water tank once a day or every other day and replace it with clean drinking water.

Green vegetables are fed once a day or every other day. The sand tray should be cleaned 1-2 times a week, and food cans, water cans and utensils should be disinfected once a month. The temperature changes greatly in spring and autumn, so pay attention to adjusting the room temperature to prevent the occurrence of diseases. Keep warm in winter, and the indoor temperature should not be lower than 16℃. The temperature is higher in summer, and ventilation should be strengthened when it is generally above 30℃. The main feeds include millet, sorghum, barnyard grass, rice, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, egg millet, rapeseed or other green vegetables. 1. The proportion of pellets is 40% millet, 20% millet, 10% rice, 20% sesame seeds, and 10% sunflower seeds. Mix the several feeds evenly. 2. When mixing egg millet, add 2 grams of salt and 4-6 grams of multivitamins, calcium powder and trace elements to every 1 kilogram of millet. The sexual maturity of young birds is about 8 months, and they can participate in breeding at this time. Cockatiels breed all year round, but in the hottest months of summer, July to August, it is also the molting season for parrots, so the nests should be removed to stop breeding. If the nests are not removed, the parrots will continue to breed. Due to the hot weather, although the eggs hatched develop well, the hatching rate is very low, and a considerable number of chicks will suffocate to death in the eggshells, and the molting period of the parrots will be delayed. It is better to stop the reproduction of the parrots, wait until they recover their strength and molt, and then hang the nests to breed again, so as to maintain a high hatching rate and improve economic benefits.