Parrot Fish?

[miguynmkoi]

I see these fish in small schools in restaurants here and there but in a hotel lobby in China we were left with our jaws hanging when we stepped into the entrance.

Don't remember the names of these fish but have also seen them at pet stores here.

Love the mass of color.  They followed our hands when we slowly waved them over the glass...looking for food.  There was a food dispenser causing a feeding frenzy!  What a sight!

[bunny56lbc]

Beautiful ! How big are they ? In the last picture they look small .



bonnie

[miguynmkoi]

Hi Bonnie, in the 3rd photo you can scale the size of the fish and the aquarium by the size of the person's arm pointing to the fish.  I would say the largest of the fish is about the size of a 8" dinner plate and the smallest about 2".  Most are in the mid size range.  Together they are fascinating to watch.

[bunny56lbc]

Hi Bonnie, in the 3rd photo you can scale the size of the fish and the aquarium by the size of the person's arm pointing to the fish.  I would say the largest of the fish is about the size of a 8" dinner plate and the smallest about 2".  Most are in the mid size range.  Together they are fascinating to watch.

OH , WOW....I didn't see the person or part of a person until you pointed them out.....that is one big aqua .

bonnie

[marla]

They are pretty, I always thought about getting some for my aquarium just never did.

[Jonna]

Wow! I didn't notice the person before either.  They are huge. 

[miguynmkoi]

I should have mentioned the aquarium is probably a good 15 feet wide and maybe 5 feet in height.  It is on a cabinet base about 2 feet off the ground.  These seem to be the popular fish in China.  I remember when the arowana was the "IT" fish a long time ago.

[Mikey]

I too thought the fish were small until you pointed out the person on the left.  Those are big fish in that huge aquarium.  Very interesting looking fish.  Have you ever seen them at Eastern Nishikigoi?

[miguynmkoi]

I've seen them at Chinese restaurants and Petsmart.  Don't remember them at EN.  I haven't been there since July when they were out of stock with non koi fish. 

[cashb]

.K, so what's the name of these beauties????  Would they work in a pond?  There is a thai restaurant near us that has a cool display of them but they don't know the name either..

[miguynmkoi]

I did a search a while back and found parrot Cichlids plus some latinish name.  Also found out that these fish were created in someones lab for the color.  It is cruel though that these fish as pretty as they may seem live a very cruel life and should only be kept in a guarded environment, like a pond or aquarium.  They do not have proper "fish lips" and cannot really eat anything unless it is free floating and small enough to fit easily into its mouth.

Did that make any sense?  Oh well.  They are just pretty fish but after reading about them....not really thrilled about their maker. 

[joejoe123]

Ive had these fish before and I got them when they were babies and they were brown with stripes and I put them in my pond one summer and they turned that redish orange color so I know mine werent dyed but the ones that are purple an blue and pink and other colors are dyed that color but the redish orange ones like these are probably not . There great fish to have by the way just done get the color variteies

Joey