My bleeding heart...

P

powellmacaque

AC Members
Feb 16, 2005
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St. Petersburg, FL
So I was in walmart today, and every time I go in I happen to go in the fish section. Today I noticed 3 blood parrots that were previously in with pacus (I noticed the UPC sticker) and they were quite beat up, but lively nonetheless. I wanted to pick them up badly, I know otherwise they'd end up in some bowl somewhere suffocating. I have a fully stocked 55 now (maybe overstocked?) and was wondering if it would be trouble picking these guys up. I know I want to upgrade, but probably not for another year or so. Here's the current stocking:

2 BPs (one adult, other juvie)
3 Firemouths (one adult, others juvies)
2 Convicts (F) (juvies)
1 Zamora Wood Cat
1 Rubberlip Pleco

What do you guys recommend?
 
Man if I had the money I'd buy a tank just for those guys.

As far as my current stocking, I researched it a bit before adding any fish and many said it would be fine, maybe a tad overstocked but not harmful. Do you think otherwise? Just looking out for the fish...
 
If you did add these 3 bloods you would be committing yourself to upgrading to a much larger tank then you may have planed for.

overstocking can be done but the maintenance demand would be rigorous as water quality will deteriorate rapidly as these fish get bigger.

you don't say how big the fish you have are so could you do? yes, is it advisable probably not.

you don't want to rescue these three only to the determent to your current residents.

Just think long and hard before you do it. (because I would bet that you are going to go ahead and buy these fish)

good luck
 
I have the same problem with going to walmart.. come to think of it I JUST picked up 3 lonely platies an hour ago haha
 
Well as of right now on BP is about 7", one firemouth is about 6", and the rest are all 3" and under. I've had one of the parrots for a good six months now and he's grown from about 1.5" to about 3", so they don't seem to grow to fast.

I will probably just leave my tank as is, I just got it looking how I want it, I was really just trying to see if I had some workable room in the tank.
 
I think I need to reclarify my original post:

If I would've gotten the fish, I would have upgraded in less than a year. I didn't and don't plan on actually buying the fish now, after consideration.

As far as my current stocking, I posted about two months ago in regards to the stocking, and a majority of the people who responded said that it would be a tad overstocked, but not too much. I change water and maintain the tank regularly. I did my research, and I do know exactly how big they will get into adulthood. The Firemouths will be about 6", the Blood Parrots about 8", and the Convicts about 5.5".

I have kept firemouths for about 5 years (at one time I had just two firemouths in a 55) and in my personal experience they tend to become less active during adulthood and rather shy. I had my biggest firemouth with my biggest blood parrot together for a year or so and the only time the firemouth would show himself was during feedings. Once I added more fish, the firemouth became more active.

A with pretty much any cichlid tank, there are random occurrances of aggression, but I never see any fish being bullied, and the aggression only lasts for maybe three seconds. I know how big the fish will get, and if water quality and/or temperments get out of hand, I am willing and able to buy a bigger tank. But through the data and opinions I collected and through my own experiences, it seemed like my current stocking was infact planned for the long run.
 
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