Tropical Fish Forums

[greenjellybean]

Not sure what's going on. I have a 36 gallon tank. Two jelly bean parrots, a pleco, a large underwater frog and three goldfish. A few days ago I noticed the parrots flopping over on the bottom of the tank. When I feed them, they seem pretty active. When startled, they swim like nothing is wrong. But when they rest, they flop right over. The other fish are perfectly fine. I have had this tank setup with all these fish for about three months.

Last night I emtied 3/4 of the tank and refilled with fresh water. After it settled down, I put the parrots back in and they seemed fine. Swimming around the middle of the tank, not hanging around the bottom. I got home from work today and they were back on the bottom. Only the parrots, nothing else. They have no visible sign of stress (no ick, no blotches, color is good, gills look good). Weird, Other then they like to lay on their sides, they appear to be in good shape.
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TK

[PocketBoy]

I'm not sure if this is the reason they're acting that way... but your tank sounds over-stocked. Gold fish produce a lot of waste and grow much to large to keep in a 36g. I wouldn't recomend keeping 1 gold fish in a 36g let alone 3 with the others you have listed. Not to mention, blood parrots have been know to get quite large. Either return the fish or buy a larger aquarium.

Sorry, don't want to hurt any feelings. If you're still interested in keeping cichlids, try some of the dwarf species. Bolivian rams are pretty cute and you could keep a pair of them in your tank.
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"Express Yourself Don't Repress Yourself" - Madonna