I think my parrot fish is breeding (on his own??) HELP

RobUK

RobUK

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Apr 16, 2004
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My Parrot Fish has created somekind of nest HELP PLEASE (pics)

Hi all,

Last night and this morning my parrot fish has been very bussy.
He has cleaned and now placed on a large flat rock what appears to be either eggs or little bubbles???

He/She??? has also become very aggressive, I managed to remove my pleco as he was getting agro but the nets etc were attacked as was my hand :(

The parrot appears to rubbing what looks like a penis or somekind of extrsusion that I havent noticed before against the suface of the afore mentioned rock.

The territory surronding and including the rock is now being very heavily defended (put your finger on glass and he smashes against the glass)

I am not sure weather I have a male or a female and havent got a clue what to do, I didnt really want breeding fish as the tank is only a 50g grow out.

I will hopefully managed to get some pics up once I have found a host for them.

Any and all advice would be apprietted.
Thanks
 
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The 'penis' is mostly likely the cloacal tube that fish use to deposit eggs. Means this is a female. However, lacking a male to fertilize, there's not really a concern about any of the eggs hatching. She will likely defend the eggs for a while, then give up and eat or ignore them.

While many livebearers are capable of storing sperm for quite some time following mating, egg-laying fish can't produce fertile eggs without both genders present--they do not fertilize internally, so those eggs will never develop. You can remove them if you want--otherwise, they'll fungus up and decay.
 
Thanks :)

Will this become a reguler occurance or will she try this time and then give up???

Also can I assume the territory defense will lessen as she loses interest in the egss?
 
Depends--parrots are hybrid fish, and often are not fertile (though most will go through the motions, like yours is), but I'm really not sure how often they'll try. Mind if I move this over to the Cichlid forum? You'll probably get more detailed answers there.
 
OK :) Thanks,
I must admit I wasnt sure where the best place for this would be/

Thanks for your help :)
 
it most definitely seems you have a female since she laid the eggs on the rock. But without a male the eggs will not get fertilized and will never hatch. i don't know if this will happen often but im sure will happen again, since my friends parrot does the same thing, she lays eggs like once every 4-6 weeks, but never hatch.
 
I have spoken tonight to someone I know who is really into parrots and she has said that I should give her a terracotta pot to lay eggs in or something similar that way only the entrance to the pot not the hole tank is defended?

Also getting her a "friend" has been suggested, What do you guys/gals on here think???. Also oviuosly some more plants/decor to break up line of sight?
 
yea plant pot like that is a good idea and works great in fish tanks for breeding.
 
Plant pots in and I am enticing her into with bloodworm treats etc, I did move the tank arounf before adding it but she hasnt taken a liking to it yet, Hopefully the constant bloodworm she keeps finding in there will persude her its a good spot to own.

She has finished laying now so lets hope I'm not in this situation again in 4-6weeks ;)

As always, thanks to all for the great advice and info :)
 
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