Quoyi Parrot Fish (Scarus Quoyi)

[findingAqua]

Hello everyone,

Ive just got myself one of these little guys and cant find much information about them.. he seems to of found a corner at the bottom and just sits there, he does eat if food gets dropped near him but doesnt really leave his corner.

From what I read they should be active swimmers, granted he was a postal order and has been in the tank about 24 hours now.. is this normal settling behaviour?

Thank you

 

[paul01609]

Probably stressed a bit

 

[BetteMidler]

Do you have a picture? I know @blaxsun has had one for a while. I have a different species of Parrotfish, but you are describing normal behavior. They can be very skiddish & act weird when feeding from time to time. Especially when 1st introduced. Mine didn't come out for two days, but once settled, they will be your best bud eating anything and greeting you anytime you walk up to the tank. If anything is harassing him, it might be a while.

 

[findingAqua]

Do you have a picture? I know @blaxsun has had one for a while. I have a different species of Parrotfish, but you are describing normal behavior. They can be very skiddish & act weird when feeding from time to time. Especially when 1st introduced. Mine didn't come out for two days, but once settled, they will be your best bud eating anything and greeting you anytime you walk up to the tank. If anything is harassing him, it might be a while.

Hes got better, came out to the centre of the tank a minute ago when i fed him! Seems very limited info on these guys, but i read them to be fairly brave which now seems incorrect (atleast initially?)

Such a lovely fish, and would love to hear any tips and experience from others

 

[scchase]

Parrotfish almost always spend the first day or 2 hiding IMO

 

[findingAqua]

Heres some better pictures, hes ventured to the front of the tank for the first time, so stunning!

 

[blaxsun]

Unless you picked one up directly from your LFS where it's had a chance to acclimate and get used to a tank environment, as others have mentioned - hiding and lurking in the tank is fairly normal for the first few days or so.

They will quickly become very active swimmers and rock scrapers in short order. It's a good idea to supplement their feeding with seaweed rubber banded to rocks (helps stimulate their natural rock scraping tendencies).

If you awake one morning to find what looks like someone blew their nose in your tank, don't worry - they secrete a mucous cocoon as a protective coating at night while they sleep.

Looks like a happy fish!

 

[findingAqua]

Unless you picked one up directly from your LFS where it's had a chance to acclimate and get used to a tank environment, as others have mentioned - hiding and lurking in the tank is fairly normal for the first few days or so.

They will quickly become very active swimmers and rock scrapers in short order. It's a good idea to supplement their feeding with seaweed rubber banded to rocks (helps stimulate their natural rock scraping tendencies).

If you awake one morning to find what looks like someone blew their nose in your tank, don't worry - they secrete a mucous cocoon as a protective coating at night while they sleep.

Looks like a happy fish!

I actually saw this guy on holiday snorkelling in the indo pacific, googled and found out there was a small reef safe species! But where i was on holiday there was an outbreak of hair algae, seems like this may be a good thing for him to nip at? I have a foxface and regal tang also so put nori in the tank anyway, do you think theyll share the clip or would another clip be needed once the GHA is diminished?

 

[Stang67]

I have always wanted one of these as well. Good luck with it!

 

[findingAqua]

I have always wanted one of these as well. Good luck with it!

Hes already become the household favourite!

 

[blaxsun]

I actually saw this guy on holiday snorkelling in the indo pacific, googled and found out there was a small reef safe species! But where i was on holiday there was an outbreak of hair algae, seems like this may be a good thing for him to nip at? I have a foxface and regal tang also so put nori in the tank anyway, do you think theyll share the clip or would another clip be needed once the GHA is diminished?

They may scrape the GHA in the course of scraping the rocks (and sometimes dislodging the occasional coral loose in the process), but it's mainly the coralline algae that they grind down in their second set of teeth (you'll start seeing them jettison a bunch of powder white sand every now and then).

I'd probably put two rocks until everyone learns to "share", but mine shares well with the foxface, 4 tangs and 4 angelfish.

 

[cdnco2004]

Do you have a picture? I know @blaxsun has had one for a while. I have a different species of Parrotfish, but you are describing normal behavior. They can be very skiddish & act weird when feeding from time to time. Especially when 1st introduced. Mine didn't come out for two days, but once settled, they will be your best bud eating anything and greeting you anytime you walk up to the tank. If anything is harassing him, it might be a while.

What kind of parrotfish do you have? I am considering a Bicolor but worried about housing him in a 6" tank.

 

[BetteMidler]

What kind of parrotfish do you have? I am considering a Bicolor but worried about housing him in a 6" tank.

I have a Greenblotch Parrotfish (Sparisoma atomarium). You should be able to get one from Carribean Tropics. Their website is a bit dated, but they use the some UPS overnight shipping everyone uses. Mine is still all alone in a 40G tank.

 

[scchase]

I have a Greenblotch Parrotfish (Sparisoma atomarium). You should be able to get one from Carribean Tropics. Their website is a bit dated, but they use the some UPS overnight shipping everyone uses. Mine is still all alone in a 40G tank.

I adore my Greenblotch, think it's almost 3 now and maybe 3 inches with full male colors (not a huge difference) also perfectly reefsafe as well