There seem to be few balanced opinions on this fish. One segment of the fishkeeping enthusiast community think it is an abomination, a man-made species that is sterile, with swim bladder problems, mouths that don’t close, and artificially dyed skin. Because of these deformities, it can’t eat properly, is ugly, and aggressive.

Then you get people like me. Okay, so I started to put together an Amazon rainforest aquascape, and I filled it with South American species of tetras, angel fish, some corydoras, a couple of algae-eaters and two gorgeous black ghost knife fish I call Patch and Zappy. And, even though they are as far away from the Amazon as you can get, I also stocked three blood parrot cichlids.

Now, if I had read the articles on the internet about the fish, akin to the spawn of Satan, I probably wouldn’t have done it. But we have some parrots in the koi pond outside and they’re very curious and bright animals, always coming up to gently “kiss” me on my legs while I’m doing my semi-regular pond maintenance. They have no problems swimming. They come to the surface of the pond to eat. They are quite happy milling about, around the koi, gourami and school of tiger barbs we have.

Their sociability is what I noticed in pet shops too. The parrots are the ones who’ll come to the front of the tank as you walk past and watch you, gently waving their fins about, genuinely curious about you and what you’re doing. How could I resist?

Here they are, coming to the front of the tank the moment they notice me holding up one of their containers of food.

And here they are keeping an eye on me after I took the container away.

So, in my four-foot tank, I have three lovely parrots and two of them decided to spawn. This began with annoying, yet compulsively watchable, terraforming of the substrate, followed by commandeering an old metal sports water bottle that I had originally placed at the back of the tank for Patch. (She was quite jealous of Zappy’s abode and a couple of fights had broken out, so I was quick to come up with an alternative for her.) However, after one look, the parrot pair decided that this would make an excellent home for their family and poor Patch lost out again. (She and Zappy seem to have come to some amicable agreement, though, because Patch is now happy to stay in her half of the tank, and Zappy is happy to stay in his.)

It’s like having a documentary unfold in my own office. I can just turn my head and observe the mating behaviour of the parrots and can readily attest that they’re extremely protective potential parents. Their “bite” feels more like a metal file vibrating against your skin. It’s startling, doesn’t hurt, but uncomfortable to tolerate for any length of time. I eventually had to use a long stick to shift the bottle to the front of the tank so I could observe their behaviour more closely. Having said that, though, they don’t seem to have the same antipathy to the other fish, beyond a quick run-off. In fact, Patch almost poked her tail into one of the parrot’s eyes yesterday, while she was backing out of somewhere, and the parrot didn’t even react. So, aggressive? Not so much.

They’ve laid eggs in the bottle but have unfortunately eaten most of them as the eggs developed a fungal disease common to this breed of fish. With more attempts at breeding, I’m hoping the success rate goes up.

There’s something joyous and, at the same time, humbling about watching the fish breed. I see it as a way for them to confirm that the environment is healthy, safe and comfortable enough for them to consider bringing up the next generation. Forgive me while I bask in pride while figuring out how to tighten my maintenance regime and maintain quality ….

Oh darn, that didn’t last long. You’ll have to excuse me. Some naughty aquarium resident has pulled up a couple of plants and I need to go reseat them.