Blood parrot fish or parrot cichlid – is a hybrid of various cichlasoma species and it’s not encountered in the wild. The fish has rather specific body shape and a very small mouth.
Probably, the name of the fish “parrot” is due to its mouth shape or, maybe, due to its likeness with a marine Parrotfish. You should keep in mind, that the latter is a completely different fish genus, that inhabits in sea water and we are talking here about freshwater parrot fish.
Discus fish (Symphysodon) is an incredibly beautiful fish with very unusual body shape. The fish is often called a king of freshwater tanks and not in vain.
Large, impossibly bright fish with lots of different colorings…so why not a king? Discus is leisured and stately as the king should be. This peaceful and graceful fish draws aquarists’ eye like no other fish can.
Is Cichlid family species and it’s divided into three subspecies, two of which have been known for a long time already and the third one has been discovered fairly recently.
Symphysodon aequifasciatus and Symphysodon discus are the most well known fish species, which inhabit in central and low course of the Amazon River, they are very much alike as for the coloring and behavior.
However, the 3rd subspecies Symphysodon haraldi has been relatively recently described by Heiko Bleher and it awaits further classification and acknowledgment.
Jack Dempsey (Rocio octofasciata, earlier called Cichlasoma octofasciatum) is a widely spread tank fish within North and Central America.
Because of the fish congenital aggressiveness towards its tank mates the USA aquarists have called it Jack Dempsey by the name of the popular professional boxer.
Convict cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) is one of the most spread and the least demanding cichlid fishes. It has a very interesting feature – how the fish couple takes care of its juveniles, a process which is rather exciting to observe.
However, you should keep in mind that this species is very aggressive towards its tank mates, that’s why in case of small capacity tanks the Convict cichlid couple has to be kept on its own in a tank.
