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Help Parrot Cichlid

Sat, 03/13/2010 - 01:03 — darrell n teresa

My green parrot cichlid is turning white!   Was completely green, now is almost solid white. Does anyone know the reason why?! Have 7 more cichlids in tank, no others are changing. Please help if anyone has answers! Thank You!

Comments

Sun, 03/14/2010 - 17:44 — ParrotsRus

Re: Help Parrot Cichlid

Any parrot that is not orange has been dyed. This dye will fade and completely disappear. I find dying these beautiful fish to be inhumane and the only way to stop it is by not buying these poor creatures.

Sat, 03/13/2010 - 02:03 — Peanut

Re: Help Parrot Cichlid

Your fish was dyed. It's a horrible process that kills 80% of the fish. They are dipped in acid to remove the slime coat then dipped into the dye.

Once the dye wears off, they become their natural color. He'll be white/gray and then he will develope his natural color. BP's naturally only come in colors of orange and yellow and variations of those colors. Any other color is dyed and should be avoided.

Sat, 03/13/2010 - 02:03 — Chrisplosion

Re: Re: Help Parrot Cichlid

Yep you fish was dyed and so its losing its color. It should be orange or in my case brown with black stripes.

Sat, 03/13/2010 - 01:54 — Nostagia

RE: Help Parrot Cichlid

first, I don't think we have enough information to know what the answer is. Or to help you.
What type of BPs do you have?
What color are the other BPs.
How long have you had them?
How big are they and in particular the fish loosing color.
Do you see anything unusual on any of them, besides the one with color change?
Do you check your water for Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, PH etc. If so what are your readings. If not, you need to get a test kit or strips that will do the test. (They are not hard to find)
How big is your aquarium?
Do your BPs get along or do some or them get picked on, How about the one with color loss. In otherwords any stress.
Photos always help.
Do you know a lot about fish, BPs? Or are you fairly new,

Sat, 03/13/2010 - 02:45 — Nostagia

RE: Help Parrot Cichlid

Since a couple others have brought up the dyed Parrots, I will say, I imagine they are right. If the fish was completely green. That doesn't mean, there is not a problem. They do loose their color as they get a little older. The ones I knew of, turned pale yellow or orange. Depending on the type of fish they were from. I saw some older ones, maybe six years old. They looked good. So they can live and be healthy.
I bought 4 of these fish years ago. Had no idea why they were the color they were and I should haved looked into it. I fell in love with them. I didn't have them very long. I can handle most problems with fish, with these four it was constant, one thing after another. They were maybe the size of a quarter. The dyeing of them killed them slowly. They were not old enough to loose the color. I am hoping yours are older.
What you need to know, is they are not as strong as BPs that have not been dyed. That is what all the questions are for.
As I said it wouldn't hurt to go thru the question above and make sure it is just the dye wearing off. Send back the info.
If you can get them to a place where they are past the dye, They could be healthy, beautiful BPs. Just because mine were basically dead when I bought them, doesn't mean you cannot keep yours. Hopefully they are stronger and not as affected.
The thing you need to know, you have to take better care of these fish, as they are not as strong. Meaning keeping there water where it should be, and keeping them stressfree.
Good luck