Kirin Parrot

Cicadidae

Feeder Fish
Oct 18, 2019
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My local aquarium store has a pretty kirin parrot. my 55 currently houses a big gold severum, a bunch of guppies, some tetras, and some Cory cats. The Kirin is not very big. My tank community is not aggressive. Will the Kirin become aggressive as it gets older and larger?
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Black Skirt Tetra
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The severum, being a cichlid, but it might suffer a little from their waste output. The kirin parrot is an omnivore that gets to around 7-12" total, so the guppies, tetras, and cories might be in trouble, seeing as the kirin will not stay that small. The kirin parrot is NOT aggressive, but it will eat some of the smaller fish. Take caution, but you can try.
 

Magnus_Bane

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The severum, being a cichlid, but it might suffer a little from their waste output. The kirin parrot is an omnivore that gets to around 7-12" total, so the guppies, tetras, and cories might be in trouble, seeing as the kirin will not stay that small. The kirin parrot is NOT aggressive, but it will eat some of the smaller fish. Take caution, but you can try.
I don't think I'd say just yet that it won't be aggressive. I've had a couple parrots in the past and both were very aggressive regardless of size. Also I currently keep FH's as well and most that I have seen/kept tend to be very aggressive fish. So atleast in my mind if you hybridize 2 aggressive Cichlids together you'll most likely have aggressive offspring as a result.
 

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Black Skirt Tetra
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I don't think I'd say just yet that it won't be aggressive. I've had a couple parrots in the past and both were very aggressive regardless of size. Also I currently keep FH's as well and most that I have seen/kept tend to be very aggressive fish. So atleast in my mind if you hybridize 2 aggressive Cichlids together you'll most likely have aggressive offspring as a result.
Fair enough. Personality is variable among all organisms, so there is no real way to tell whether or not they'll be aggressive. In my experience, parrot cichlids are a more passive and shy type when younger, although they'll start getting REALLY aggressive(usually only the females, the males tend to be a bit more forgiving) when they hit about 1-2 years of age. Flowerhorns are for the most part aggressive once they start coloring up at around 2-3 months of age. There are rare cases where specimens are REALLY off-key from the normal types, but those are way too far between to be called solid evidence. I haven't done kirin parrots yet, but as far as Im am aware, they take more after their parrot side. I think Crystal Parrots (truly red ones, mostly) have more of their flowerhorn blood up and out, but I have no clue, seeing as they cost WAY too much for me to feasibly obtain a good 2" one. Sources, maybe? I'd love to find a seller for crystals or kirins...
Oh! and giving the young hybrids lots of space and hidey-holes is always a plus to their attitude, although the flowerhorns might start hogging. I think that something around 120 gallons (something around 60"x20"x20" is 100 gallons, more length so they have little gaps betweens themselves) should be nice, although they still do really nice until they hit around 30 gallons or less.
 
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Fair enough. Personality is variable among all organisms, so there is no real way to tell whether or not they'll be aggressive. In my experience, parrot cichlids are a more passive and shy type when younger, although they'll start getting REALLY aggressive(usually only the females, the males tend to be a bit more forgiving) when they hit about 1-2 years of age. Flowerhorns are for the most part aggressive once they start coloring up at around 2-3 months of age. There are rare cases where specimens are REALLY off-key from the normal types, but those are way too far between to be called solid evidence. I haven't done kirin parrots yet, but as far as Im am aware, they take more after their parrot side. I think Crystal Parrots (truly red ones, mostly) have more of their flowerhorn blood up and out, but I have no clue, seeing as they cost WAY too much for me to feasibly obtain a good 2" one. Sources, maybe? I'd love to find a seller for crystals or kirins...
Oh! and giving the young hybrids lots of space and hidey-holes is always a plus to their attitude, although the flowerhorns might start hogging. I think that something around 120 gallons (something around 60"x20"x20" is 100 gallons, more length so they have little gaps betweens themselves) should be nice, although they still do really nice until they hit around 30 gallons or less.
Yeah ik I've had some weird fish in the past. One of my FH's atm is honestly pretty shy personality wise,atleast when it comes to ppl, not so much when ya have another fish with her. Both of the parrots I had were very aggressive, 1 was a 10 year old 12in King Kong who would headbutt everyone in the tank any chance he got, the other one was a baby polar parrot and I think the only reason it was to aggressive was because of the convict Gene's in it. Granted had plenty of FH's that were stereotypical.
 

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Black Skirt Tetra
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Yeah ik I've had some weird fish in the past. One of my FH's atm is honestly pretty shy personality wise,at least when it comes to ppl, not so much when ya have another fish with her. Both of the parrots I had were very aggressive, 1 was a 10 year old 12in King Kong who would headbutt everyone in the tank any chance he got, the other one was a baby polar parrot and I think the only reason it was to aggressive was because of the convict Gene's in it. Granted had plenty of FH's that were stereotypical.
If you’re talking convict parrots (that’s the name of the whole group, each color variation has a unique name. I currently have 4 Variants, and I’m missing the REALLY good ones, sadly.) that’s something else. They’re smaller but more naturally aggressive with Amatitlania blood (HRP and common convict, to be exact), as well as the dormant Midas and TRD from the original parrot hybrid. I could show them, maybe... they stay around Oreo sized. Some get 5”+ or so.
The King Kong has more of the Midas aggression level has, as they’re actually really close to flowerhorns. Especially the Mammons from the original Asian breeders. The American version is much smaller and less aggressive, with less of a curve to the head and a more rhombus-like shape (US basically bred an arrow-shaped King Kong and sells it for the same price, essentially ripping the buyer of the TWO things they bought Mammons for, the nuchal hump and the round body. The shape is BEAUTIFUL in flowerhorns and the US Mammons, but idiots usually pay in ful. They’re supposed to be 20$ at 2”, but I saw an idiot go 100$ for one.). Or at least the younger ones do. I have yet to find a full-sized American Mammon.
 
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If you’re talking convict parrots (that’s the name of the whole group, each color variation has a unique name. I currently have 4 Variants, and I’m missing the REALLY good ones, sadly.) that’s something else. They’re smaller but more naturally aggressive with Amatitlania blood (HRP and common convict, to be exact), as well as the dormant Midas and TRD from the original parrot hybrid. I could show them, maybe... they stay around Oreo sized. Some get 5”+ or so.
The King Kong has more of the Midas aggression level as, as they’re actually really close to flowerhorns. Especially the Mammons from the original Asian breeders. The American version USB’s much smaller and less aggressive, with less of a curve to the head and a more rhombus-like shape. Or at least the younger ones do. I have yet to find a full-sized American Mammon.
Yeah some of these fish hybrids are just crazy on how intricately they are made. The con/parrot I had was roughly the size of a marble and had the attitude of a fully grown FH, killed my albino millennium rainbow I had sadly and then got eaten by my baby 2in Asian red tail cat I had (another mistake fish I bought). The King Kong tho he was a beast of a parrot, lol basically a big orange football swimming in the tank that would bully my 14in Jack Dempsey. That jack was by far one of the most chill fish I ever had.
 
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Black Skirt Tetra
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Yeah some of these fish hybrids are just crazy on how intricately they are made. The con/parrot I had was roughly the size of a marble and had the attitude of a fully grown FH, killed my albino millennium rainbow I had sadly and then got eaten by my baby 2in Asian red tail cat I had (another mistake fish I bought). The King Kong tho he was a beast of a parrot, lol basically a big orange football swimming in the tank that would bully my 14in Jack Dempsey. That jack was by far one of the most chill fish I ever had.
I’d like to make the point that the Parrot Hybrid Cichlid has three main classes: Flowerhorn, Blood Parrot, and Other(we don’t have enough of them to create dedicated subsets).
For Convict Parrots, I’d recommend that you keep them with other hybrids with less aggression from around the same age. For example don’t get a .5” Convict Parrot and throw them to a 9” Blood Parrot. Odds are, the Convicts are toast. However, I find that Blood Parrots and some other Variants (like a natural yellow, orange, or Purple Rose) usually don’t have as much aggression, but the Outlier rule applies still. For penny-sized Convict Parrots, buy something around a 1.5” Blood Parrot or something of the sort, that’s a good size for the least fighting, so you can develop sociable fish and therefore as aggressive specimens. Convict Parrots are actually usually not too bad with most fish until they hit around 2 cm(penny size, explanation in a second) or when they hit sexual maturity at around 6 months, which is when they hit penny size, usually. The females start getting the signature convict orange on the stomachs and drop their ovular vents, the males start growing their nuchal humps. How do I know? My penny-sized normal female and my leucistic quarter-sized male decided that last month was a good time to get their game on. The female is five months old, the male is 8 months(I think). They beat the everloving CARP out of... 25? rosy red minnows they’d been chumming with, and they eventually lost the spawn to my baby flowerhorn male, who beat the carp out of the male and hospitalized the poor thing(who lost his eye prior to the fight because he got trapped under a pot.). I’m still waiting for CoVid-19 to clear up so I can get a new blood Parrot female to experiment for some alpha-version Kirins, so I’ve got that pending.
My American Mammon pair is around 7 months old(?) and an inch away from spawning size, they’re still the shyest things in my currently- overstocked display(don’t worry, I’ll fix it when this hell of a virus is history) besides my angels and a little female Yellow blood Parrot. I used to have a pair of Blood Parrots before I got the Mammons that were... 5.5” each, The male was the nicest thing in the tank, survived TWO flowerhorns(breeding attempt that got mistimed), and then the female decided that he was hers. She sparred him, he won(because he’d be toast if he were too small to overpower her) and they laid (i **** you not) an actual one thousand eggs(I compared to an existing spawn of 300 eggs from a pair of convict Parrots). The male got so vicious protecting his mate and infertile spawn that he bit into my hand(still got the scar, this was December 2019) and I had to trade them in for store credit(that’s where my Mammon ripoffs are from). There are more stories, and we all have time, I guess.
 
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I’d like to make the point that the Parrot Hybrid Cichlid has three main classes: Flowerhorn, Blood Parrot, and Other(we don’t have enough of them to create dedicated subsets).
For Convict Parrots, I’d recommend that you keep them with other hybrids with less aggression from around the same age. For example don’t get a .5” Convict Parrot and throw them to a 9” Blood Parrot. Odds are, the Convicts are toast. However, I find that Blood Parrots and some other Variants (like a natural yellow, orange, or Purple Rose) usually don’t have as much aggression, but the Outlier rule applies still. For penny-sized Convict Parrots, buy something around a 1.5” Blood Parrot or something of the sort, that’s a good size for the least fighting, so you can develop sociable fish and therefore as aggressive specimens. Convict Parrots are actually usually not too bad with most fish until they hit around 2 cm(penny size, explanation in a second) or when they hit sexual maturity at around 6 months, which is when they hit penny size, usually. The females start getting the signature convict orange on the stomachs and drop their ovular vents, the males start growing their nuchal humps. How do I know? My penny-sized normal female and my leucistic quarter-sized male decided that last month was a good time to get their game on. The female is five months old, the male is 8 months(I think). They beat the everloving CARP out of... 25? rosy red minnows they’d been chumming with, and they eventually lost the spawn to my baby flowerhorn male, who beat the carp out of the male and hospitalized the poor thing(who lost his eye prior to the fight because he got trapped under a pot.). I’m still waiting for CoVid-19 to clear up so I can get a new blood Parrot female to experiment for some alpha-version Kirins, so I’ve got that pending.
My American Mammon pair is around 7 months old(?) and an inch away from spawning size, they’re still the shyest things in my currently- overstocked display(don’t worry, I’ll fix it when this hell of a virus is history) besides my angels and a little female Yellow blood Parrot. I used to have a pair of Blood Parrots before I got the Mammons that were... 5.5” each, The male was the nicest thing in the tank, survived TWO flowerhorns(breeding attempt that got mistimed), and then the female decided that he was hers. She sparred him, he won(because he’d be toast if he were too small to overpower her) and they laid (i **** you not) an actual one thousand eggs(I compared to an existing spawn of 300 eggs from a pair of convict Parrots). The male got so vicious protecting his mate and infertile spawn that he bit into my hand(still got the scar, this was December 2019) and I had to trade them in for store credit(that’s where my Mammon ripoffs are from). There are more stories, and we all have time, I guess.
Yeah I had the 3 fish in a quarentine tank and all went fine for the first few weeks and then all hell broke loose in one day and lost the 2 fish already mentioned and my bumble bee cat. The rainbow and bumble bee were supposed to go into my 55g to join my Australian rainbow, the con/parrot was supposed to eventually join the harem of convicts I had in the 80g along with my male con, and the ARC was eventually going to be added in with my channel cat and American flathead cats which he hated, he decided he was going to rip out a chunk out of both of their faces and then lip locked with the channel cat. So he got put back into quarentine till I could take him back to my lfs until he decided he didn't like the smaller tank and jumped out. That catfish was such a massive headache honestly.

The King Kong I was kind of sad to see him pass away but he got to live for almost 11 years so he had a good life atleast. The saddest part was whatching it happen infront of me, one minute he was swimming around just fine, acting normal, and then 5 mins later he was laying on his side, taking long deep breathes, and then stopped entirely.
 
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