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My poor new parrot fishies… :(

I picked these five beauties up yesterday, not realizing the sordid past involved. Many of you have probably heard of parrot fish -- these are "jelly bean" parrots, and it wasn't until doing some online searching that I learned just how cruel life's been to the little guys. First off, they're mutts. Their fascinating yet arguably unhealthy body shape and scheme is the result of crossbreeding, and what's even stranger? I can't find a site that positively identifies which two types of fish were crossbred. Apparently, it's like the Colonel's recipe or some shit. This has given the little mutants a wealth of problems -- their spines are abnormal, they can't chew food like most other fish, eyes are a bit fucked...so on and so on. That's just the half of it, though.

The fish are popular mainly because, as freshwater fish, they have alarmingly bright colors. Beautiful? Yes, but completely unnatural. During their albino adolescence, the fish are injected with dye-loaded needles, which literally spread the fluid colors through the parrots' bodies. Pretty sick, aye? And you thought GloFish were bad. The process invariably kills many of the fish, and the ones who survive potentially contract diseases from others by way of the dirty dye needles. Worse yet, the fish are charged with a terribly shortened lifespan. All that shit for a little extra color -- a color that will usually fade out in time. I had absolutely no idea about any of this when the fish were purchased, and while I'm not gonna pretend to be some big activist (I once ate alligator jerky), it's still kinda frigged up. Fish like these filter mainly filter here from Japan, and have been banned in a few other countries.

Four of the parrots came from the same store -- the fifth, called a "Christmas Parrot," came from another. I was taken with the last one because it was A) cheap, B) cute n' small, and C) off-white with green speckles. The lady working there told us that the fish "used to be red and green," citing how the parrots sometimes change colors. That's true, but not in this case -- it just lost its unnatural dye.

They're pretty fish, though. And they smile a lot. Must've blocked out the bad memories.

Posted by Matt on 01/21/2004. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 57 comments

Yeah, I just have a fishtank with cool skeletons and skeletal pirates. All airy bubbly. I like having an underwater horror scene. I have a few water plants to pretend the thing has a purpose beyond looking spooky. I just can’t get past the whole fish die thing. I agree with d d dave. Thanks dave, never thought of the growing kind o’ sealife that can be found in toys r us.
Oh, and what the hell is woot? Tragically unhip, apparently.

Chestnuts roasted by spooky @ 01/22/2004 3:46 AM

Wow…poor fish.

Does this sound like animal abuse to anyone else?

Chestnuts roasted by Paul @ 01/22/2004 6:22 AM

I’ve come to the conclusion that Matt should buy every single one of these fish, and let them live in his bathtub. Then, write a series of articles about the eventual fish society that will blossom. It’ll be an awesome feature, and you’ll get to feel like you’re making a difference in the world by saving all these poor fishies from the life of pain and agony that they’ve endured for far too long.

Really, you’d be an asshole not to.

Chestnuts roasted by Evin @ 01/22/2004 6:26 AM

I don’t know about buying them all up. Supply and demand. If Matt and others feel like giving these already screwed-up fish good homes, which I think is a good service, the producers may think "Hey, they’re selling like hotcakes! Increase production!" This could be the advent to a crazy snowball effect in the mass fucked-up fish industry.

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 01/22/2004 7:48 AM

having an "abnormal spine" sounds so much worse than having a Bad Back. I remember in Jr. High having to do the scoliosis test and DREADING the idea that I might actually have it, because if I did that would mean that I would have to hang out with the retarded kids.

I was a run of the mill kid. not popular, not picked on. If i couldn’t get cool, at least i didn’t want to get pushed over while i was trying to buy a pepperoni pizza.

what does this have to do with fish? I don’t know, I always had reptiles. Oh, I have since learned that calling people who are really retarded retarded is not cool. But calling people who are not really retarded but act retarded retarded is completely acceptable.

Chestnuts roasted by Chopstick Sensei @ 01/22/2004 9:06 AM

The fish look great! It will be a bummer when they start to fade away. You will have only pale misshapen gold fish. I am glad your giving them a good home, Matt.

You know, I would like a nice Japanese Coy pond one day.

Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 01/22/2004 9:06 AM

Hey Matt (hopefully you come back to read this), there are three possibilities. If it was really catfish-like, there are a couple that get sold as sharks. One is the Irridescent Shark, which does have the big head and googly eyes. They are kind of silver with blue stripes. The other catfish is the Blacktip Shark. These guys are all silver, but the fins are black. They also look catfish-like, but more sharky, too.

On the other hand, it could have been a Bala Shark (or Tricolour shark). These guys are all silver, with black and gold borders on their fins. Sometimes their heads are a little big for their body, but that’s normal since they are actually minnows (like goldfish).

If it was a dyed Bala Shark, they are useually dyed red or blue.

In the case of all of these fish, any of them could be 7" plus. Irridescent Sharks get up to three feet long (you’d know it was one of these if it swam madly into the sides constantly); Blacktips get about 18-24, and Balas get 12-18.

Of course, that never happens in a home aquarium, but they can get pretty big there too.

Hope that helps.

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 01/22/2004 10:54 AM

matt, the shark you bought was an irriedscent shark. a catfish. they get 2 ft. long and swim alot. need about a 600 gallon tank as they are fast and very skittish (did your bash into the glass alot?). funny how petsmart sells them as infants and has a tag on them that says they get to like 10" or something. i have a 280 gallon tank in my living room and i couldn’t even house one for life. and wild bill is correct on the blood parrot cross. they are very popular in asia, there is also a tail-less version that is more hideous than those ugly swimming balls you’ve got right there. here’s a pic of my 19" black arowana for the hell of it:

http://predatoryfish.net/pics/narc/IM000073.JPG

and my blue motoro stingray (yes there are freshwater rays) and lapradei bichir:

http://predatoryfish.net/pics/narc/IM000071.JPG

Chestnuts roasted by nick @ 01/22/2004 11:16 AM

sorry sean, didn’t know you had already posted on the irridescent shark thing.

Chestnuts roasted by nick @ 01/22/2004 11:21 AM

The guy at the pet store gave us some weird (and probably bullshit) story about the shark’s origin, but having owned so many irid-sharks, this definitely wasn’t a typical one. It may have been a bala — I seem to recall hearing that word attached to it. He said they’re only found in one lake or river on the other side of the world, if that helps.

The fish was also notable for having a strange swimming pattern: seemingly agitated, and not very fluid. When he went to the top for food, it wasn’t graceful at all. He died rather suddenly despite being in a clean tank and appearing free from disease, so I was curious if there was more to meets the eye with its origin. :)

Another of my favorite past fishies was a pleco that was no less than a foot long and about 6" thick. Absolutely beautiful; the kind of thing you’d see in an aquarium.

By the way, these parrots are incredible. I’ve never had fish that react so clearly to what goes on outside the tank. Using my hand, I can literally herd them all into a corner of the tank, where they’ll remain until I walk away. If I catch them while they’re all separated (they usually stick together), I’ve noticed that their second line of defense is simply falling completely still. Not "still" as in "not swimming," "still" as in completely not moving at all.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 01/22/2004 11:25 AM

i had a fire eel i would hand feed and it would curl up in my hand and let me wrestle with it. then a gar ate it. then i replaced it with a bigger one. that one croaked. and i’ve replaced that one with a spotted spiny eel. we’ll see what happens. i’m hoping to get a collar on it soon and start some training. p.s., lots of fish are only found in one river on the other side of the world. but some rivers are pretty large. :) one of my stingrays only exists in one locale in south america and i’m one of about 5 people in my internet fish community of over 6,000 that owns one.

Chestnuts roasted by nick @ 01/22/2004 11:44 AM

Oh, great. Now I’ll feel guilty about eating fish sticks. At a chinese restaurant Little Brother used to frequent, they had a HUGE carp in a tank by the door. One day Bro came in and the tank was empty, so he asked what happened. Apparently, someone left the top off one night and the big sucker leaped to his death. L.B. was too saddened to ask if it fried up good.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 01/22/2004 11:47 AM

Interactive fish are cool.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 01/22/2004 2:31 PM

Urrr… I think it’s spelt "Koi." However, to be completely honest, there’s little difference between those huge koi you see in fancy ponds and your average pet goldfish. Bowl goldies usually never grow that big because they have such confined spaces, but give ‘em a big pond, and they’ll get gigantic! Well, for fish.

Koi are actually remarkbly smart for fish. Also somewhat emotionable. Some of them really love attention, and will come up to be petted. ‘Course, why you’d wanna pet a fish…

Chestnuts roasted by Freezair @ 01/22/2004 3:50 PM

Actually, a carp probably would taste good–they eat them all the time in Asia.

If it wasn’t an irridescent shark (sounds like you’ve had those before) it was likely a bala shark–they eat in a weird manner because their mouths are underneath their heads. My wife used to have a tank with 4 big ones that kicked off one night, all at once. It was clean tank, so who knows–it probably is something in their transport.

There are other sharks that look similar (the Calico shark is very close, and lives in one drainage system in central Africa) and have more restricted ranges. But fish that come from only one river aren’t uncommon–my web link is pretty much just of my fish that I still have (or are still alive somewhere else). They are found only in Africa (since the Cretaceous, no less), and some, like Xerxes, are found in only a few small rivers attached to the Congo (Zaire?) river.

The bichirs (that’s what they’re called) that I still have are very puppy like. When they’re hungry, they’ll follow me or the wife back and forth across the tank, staring at us intently (okay, fish don’t blink, so there’s no choice on that one) with a "feed me" look. Parrots, like most cichlids, are always hungry, so they’d definitley be interested in the locations of the hands that feed them.

At the store I managed, we had a freshwater Moray Eel named Murray that would hand feed live crayfish. That had to be one of the coolest things to watch–he would grab it in the middle, crush it, then eat it head or tail first, stripping off the claws. Sadly, he died after I left when someone cleaned his tank. So now his skeleton is part of the collection in the Eastend T. rex Centre in southern Saskatchewan (they use it for identifying fish fossils).

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 01/22/2004 3:52 PM

The fish are called BloodParrots and they do have a natural non dyed color ranging from Orange to Red. Not all are dyed. They can also live up to ten years. In case you dont beleive me heres a bloodparrot fan site. http://parrotcichlid.com/

Chestnuts roasted by Frizzurd @ 01/26/2004 1:55 AM

Freezaire hon, I hate to seem bossy or something but you gave some really bad information up there about koi and goldfish.

Goldfish do NOT grow as big as koi.
Amount of space does not affect their growth rate. They vary individually just like people.

There are extreme differences between the looks and personality of goldfish and koi. Goldfish are not as intelligent and are more detatched and "quiet", if that makes sense in context with a fish.

Koi ARE indeed emotive and playful and can be held and petted carefully in the water. Some koi owners even kiss them. Yuck. I’ll take the petting, thanks. :p

You may wonder why I have any authority to say this stuff..well, I’ve owned koi and goldfish both for years. :) Also, to anyone who might be interested in koi, it’s VERY expensive to take care of them, and if you have the time and money to do so it’s quite fun but it’s taxing..

Chestnuts roasted by GJ @ 01/26/2004 10:12 PM

I think koi are unfortunately classified so close to goldfish as to adopt the theory that they’re just as easy to take care of. I’ve never owned koi (not my thing, and until recently, never had a large enough tank), but everyone I’ve known who has ended up with lots of dead koi in a very short time. This includes in tanks, in outdoor ponds — even in super clean indoor ponds.

Someone in my family (with an outdoor ponds) tried and failed three times to keep koi. I suggested buying a bunch of "feeder" goldfish, who survived a whole lot better and ended up growing quite a bit. I’ll never understand why people’ll pay 5 bucks for a 3" goldfish and totally neglect the 10/1.00 feeders. So long as they’re not coming from an entirely filthy tank (which, admittedly, is kinda common), they’re pretty hearty.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 01/26/2004 11:19 PM

People pay five bucks for a 3" goldfish and ignore the really cheap feeders because the five bucks goldfish has those…bumpy heads and all sort of stuff. And in China (Well..Hong Kong at least) they’re the ones you get to have "good luck" and what nots. Ones with BIG red heads that look strangely like brains.

And feeders are usually not as…plump. They’re much skinnier and sleeker without the fantail. And have you ever seen a feeder with bubbles for eyes?

Chestnuts roasted by - @ 01/27/2004 3:39 AM

I was talking more just about the regular, larger g-fish — not the fantails, bubble-eyed, crazy colored crossbred crap. Though, now that I think about it, I guess they’re not commonly sold these days.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 01/27/2004 4:47 AM

The bigger godfish tend to show up at the beginning of pond seasons, since that’s when people want them.

Fantails, Rykins, Lionheads, BubbleEyes, Moors–they’re all mutants, and they won’t grow as long as a normal goldfish. However, an unmodified goldfish (a feeder that survives it’s heritage) can easily get to a foot long or more.

The ones with goofy bodies (like the above) tend to grow as spheres–I’ve known some that were easily bigger than a softball, maybe approaching handball size. But they have to be pretty old to get there.

Personally, I prefer my predators that don’t want to be touched. Just fed and kept clean. They just have too much dignity, I suppose. Or they think they’re cats.

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 01/28/2004 3:04 PM

Meh. ;P Well, nobody’s perfect. I don’t mind so much being corrected. I was only half-remembering stuff that I saw on a nature documentary several years ago, so I’m bound to be fuzzy on the subject.

Chestnuts roasted by Freezair @ 01/28/2004 8:31 PM

i used 2 hav 1 of those jelly bean parrots and it was in a tank with deformed inbred guppies and it was pretty funny because it couldn’t swallow them because of they’re retarded spines and shit.

Chestnuts roasted by Billy @ 06/24/2004 2:33 PM

It happens to be a breeding of a severum cichlid and a midas cichlid, They are *USUALLY* sterile however a breed of parrot cichlid was used to create the flowerhorn cichlids which are in very high demand and are very odd… its somewhere between 5 and 7 cichlids that were crossed to make this fish’s secret passed… Dont believe me? get a flowerhorn and a parrot cichlid… raise them in two tank then breed them… what will you get? a bunch of flowerhorns.. Try it.

Chestnuts roasted by Platy @ 10/13/2006 1:31 AM

the cross breed is red devil and sevrem

Chestnuts roasted by Sam @ 05/30/2007 9:01 PM

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2004 at 6:59 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.