The beauty of keeping an aquarium is that your fishes will give you some surprises from time to time like this one which I captured with my camera.
The three fishes are a big and a small parrot fish and a red devil. I usually switch off the light after feeding them, so when I switched on the lights, I saw that these three fishes were sleeping together. So, is three a crowd? For these fishes, I don’t think so 
The Blood Parrot Fish
In hobbyists aquarium world, many interbreed one kind of ornamental fish to another, specially the cichlids family. Cichlids are the favorite of the breeders because there are so many varieties of cichlids and they respond to opposite sex regardless of their kind as long as they are in same cichlids family. The Parrot fish or The Blood Parrot or Blood Parrotfish, is one of the favorites for interbreeding among cichlids.
The Blood Parrot fish did not originally exist. They are a unique hybrid fish of two different kinds of cichlids. The Blood Parrot fish is very famous to aquarium hobbyists because they have these unique characteristics that many people love. They have a very small, open mouth, that shaped like they are going to kiss. Their body is usually round, and their colors are from yellow, orange, pink, red, and bright red. Their nose looks like parrot beak that’s why they got the name parrot fish.
Do not confuse the Blood Parrot fish to the marine Parrot fish because they are totally different.
image from Wikipedia: Marine Parrot Fish
Recently, the aquarium world has been rocked with the issue of dyeing these Blood Parrot fish with blue, purple, pink and other colors different to their natural ones. Moral aquarists feel that injecting colors to the parrot fish will shorten the life expectancy of the fish, and also will damage its organ. These dyed parrot fish are sold as Jellybean Parrot fish.
The Blood Parrots are very peaceful and shy fish. They would hide as soon as they realize that there is a person nearby, however they are very showy to their owners. They should not be kept with aggressive fish. They like aquariums with lots of rocks where they can hide. They also love to redecorate your tanks. They would dig sands and arrange plants or stones.
I have two Blood Parrot fish, and they are really sweet, specially during feeding time. They are with another two red devil fish, and three gourami.
My newly made aquarium tank
What has prompt me to make my own aquarium? I will give you three reasons why I made my own and why you also have to make your own aquarium tank.
First is the cost of the commercially sold tanks. To buy my first small tank, I have to canvass from several aquarium shops how much the cost of the tanks is, and compare their prices. I noticed that there are shops that the price of the tanks is sky-high while others promise an invisible tank at low price and you have to wait forever before you could hold on to your tank. When I made my tank, I was able to save a lot and was able to put the savings into a better quality glass instead.
Secondly, the size of the tank does not fit onto your table, or door, or your tinnie-weenie place. One of the advantages of making your own aquarium tank is that you can customized the width, the length, and the height of your tank according to the place where you plan to put it. When I bought my second aquarium, I had to search in many places just to get a table that is big enough to fit on it, and strong enough to hold it specially where I put water in it. Making your own aquarium tank will give you the opportunity to calculate what size of tank you have to make as per your table capacity. It is important that the table is strong enough to hold the glass tank and the water, if not, it will end up a disaster.
And lastly, the “I made it” title award. You may laugh at me when I said this, but it’s true, you have the right to boast to your father and mother, and to your friends and to whoever see your aquarium. It is an accomplishment! When I made my first tank, it wasn’t big but there was that sense of accomplishment, and I immediately phoned my parents and told them that I made an aquarium tank hahaha… After that, I aimed for the bigger tank, and just few days ago, I made that. Now, that tank is the house of two blood parrot fish, two red devil fish, and three blue gourami.
On my next post, I will show how I made my second aquarium. Watch out for it! Till then…
On the day of the Mathsya Mela 2011, I also readied my new aquarium which I built a day ago. I already changed the water which I put to remove the silicone smell and I also put some old water from my other aquarium to grow bacteria on the new water. I also put the top filter which I bought from Kolkata and the heater to keep the water temperature suitable to the fish.
I bought several artificial plants, black sands, and stones in the fish festival market. I did not buy aquarium fish in the Mathsya Mela because I already have a fish in mind. If you would remember, I posted here about the fish that I dream (lol). The fish that I had in mind is the Blood Parrot fish which I saw in the aquarium shop nearby my house. There is one blood parrot fish which has a black line on the mouth that looks like a black lipstick. It is a natural color unlike the artificially-colored blood parrot fish.
Check out my newly-built aquarium decorated with the artificial plants I bought from the fish festival event.
I will post more of the pictures from the Mathsya Mela here, specially the different kinds of fish I saw there. I am still sorting them out. For the meantime, you can read more about My Mathsya Mela experience.
Welcome to Aqua World! I will write about my experiences, tips, and advice on aquarium fish keeping. Enjoy your stay! :)
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