Jellybean Parrot Fish

In the captivating world of aquatics, tropical fish do not come much more controversial than the red parrot cichlid. This man-made hybrid is quite the 'marmite fish' People tend to either love 'em or hate 'em. The parentage of these bright orange fish has always been something of a closely guarded secret, but when they were first glimpsed during the 1980s, there was much speculation that they were a cross between the severum heros severus and the red devil amphilophus labiatus . Both of those species were, at the time, classified in cichlasoma, so at that time a hybridisation between two fish of the same genus was, perhaps, not all that surprising. But both fish were later reclassified into separate genera, which made the breeding then somewhat unexpected and a little contentious. Since then, other parent species have been suggested, such as a cross between the midas cichlid amphilophus citrinellus and the redheaded cichlid vieja synspila yet others feel the convict cichlid amatitlania nigrofasciata is involved somewhere along the lines. Whatever the parentage, and love them or hate them, it seems that these fish are here to stay in the fishkeeping hobby. Red parrot cichlids have a roundish shaped body that is somewhat unnatural and akin to some of the balloon mutations bred in various other fish in recent years. It is thought that these hybrid fish have been further line bred for this mutation as a straightforward hybrid will not necessarily result in deformed spines ev...

In the captivating world of aquatics, tropical fish do not come much more controversial than the red parrot cichlid. This man-made hybrid is quite the