parrots spawning laying eggs

Hi guys,

My parrots have been digging recklessly for a few weeks now. Googled it and read that they dig when they want to spawn...... well, thought it might be a myth because mine have always just dug.

But. ... what are these?

Eggs?

And for once now im stuck.... what must I do? Leave them? Or go buy a container to store them? Worried oscars will eat them?
Any help hints would be appreciated

 

You can try to remove the eggs and hatch them separately, but due to the hybrid parentage of the Parrots, it is very likely that they will be infertile. It would be very interesting, though, to see what happens.

 

According to the laws of genetics, when parents of two different species produce offspring, those offspring will be sterile (for example a horse and donkey cross will give you either a mule or a hinny but neither a mule or a hinny can produce offspring). Because parrots are hybrids themselves, they are sterile ie they cannot produce offspring. They are perfectly capable of showing breeding behaviour and can even lay eggs, but the eggs won't develop. If you have parrot eggs hatch then congratulations! You will have broken science

 

yup those are eggs.
I haven't seen a pic of the "parents", could well both be females, or not even "parrots"...just stating the less obvious

Leave them be..or cordon off section, drop an airstone for aeration, and observe fertility, if you have intentions of raising any

I wouldn't worry about what other fish would do with the eggs, these fish will repeat the deed soon enough. Question yourself, if you WANT to even pursue raising ANYMORE fish in your possibly busy life as well as an aquarist ...hehe

@Zeiphex
I have seen it happen, that blood parrot eggs are laid and DO hatch...even though male fish are in fact largely source of the infertile/sterile egg story.

Farms that produce these in their 100 000's do so in several ways.
I managed to do this semicommercially in the 90's myself, not on as large a scale though....
during research into what these fish ARE, and HOW they reproduce

..Then science is repeatedly broken!:blink1:

 

@Altum - That's pretty fascinating stuff! In fact, after I wrote my previous comment, I got to thinking about something that almost all of us should have experience with - dogs, and even housecats. Dogs and cats are selectively bred hybrids, created by man, yet they are fertile and would seem to break science too...

 

:suspicious: just a side note for anyone else fascinated by this, and can relate it to hybrid theory (and practice)

@Zeiphex all domestic dogs are seen as ONE species.
What about Cats? Similar origins, same broad storyline.

So we really are looking at INTRASPECIFIC* crosses, of LARGELY one form of Canis lupus familiaris with another, when you think of a dog "cross breed", it is just that, really.
Of course, Wolf = Canis lupus from whence it is reasoned all dogs have their historic lineage

As for cats Felis catus,or F silvestris catus is "the domestic cat" , nomenclatural rules don't take away the connection, just a minor name change separated over which name takes precedence, by being valid, accepted first.
Historically the Parent forms which yielded our "House Cats", ie. African (and Chinese)wild cat parent types are BOTH Felis silvestris subspecies

*INTRASPECIFIC versus INTERSPECIFIC = Cross Breed WITHIN the SAME species versus Hybrid BETWEEN DIFFERENT species

:top:Good thing science can always be mended **if you think it's broken**
We always have a "working model" to fall back on, modify, and continue adding to and learning from the body of knowledge

 

Would be awesome if we could break science

 

@Ziyaadb Some can. Have you seen the genetically engineered Angels and Convicts? Some people say it is morally wrong, but where do you draw the line?

 

Usually as humans we draw the line when someone gets killed or hurt if no one gets killed or hurt the line is continued all the time.

 

@PopGun. Sorry, I went a bit off topic here.

 

@PopGun, any feedback on the eggs?? Would like to know what happened. As the saying goes: curiosity killed the cat:smile:

 

@Altum
True - but not exactly what I was referring to. Yes, all dogs are the same species, canis lupus familiaris, and you can cross different breeds without a problem. Same as with cats - felis silvestris catus. What I was curious about were their origins and how if their origins include separate species (now I'm not very clued up on their origins so I could be wrong here), they would effectively be fertile hybrids. You said with cats that it's just felis silvestris subspecies, and that makes sense. But surely dogs can't just be bred off Canis lupus and subspecies of canis lupus? If they are then them being fertile makes sense.

Also, on a more on-topic note, can anyone tell me for sure what cross creates a blood parrot? I have heard about all sorts of crosses and it seems that no-one is sure which one it is. I have heard of convict, red devil, and a few other crosses as possibilities

 

@Zeiphex. You might find the following interesting:
History of the Red Parrot | A club for owners of Parrot Cichlids
http://cichlidresearch.com/parrot.html
The Cichlid Room Companion - The Amphilophus labiatus Species Complex by Paul V. Loiselle

 

Thanks, @Wickets! I will check as soon as I'm back in Cape Town and I have a computer with internet access again! Been in Knysna since the 23rd of December but will be back in CPT on Friday.

 

"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Blood parrots will attempt to breed in an aquarium and some pairs attempt to breed very frequently (every few weeks). What most people find is that a pair will court, clean a nest site and then lay eggs. However, the eggs do not hatch in many cases. The parents will continue to care for the eggs for several days until the eggs turn white with fungus and then the parents will likely eat the eggs.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Interestingly, recently more and more people report that their blood parrot cichlids are successfully breeding."

The above is an extract from:
[/SIZE]http://cichlidresearch.com/parrot.html[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]

[/SIZE][/FONT][/FONT]
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Unfortunately the eggs didn't hatch. I did a bit of research and they should or would have hatched 3 to 4 days after laying. But if nothing happened they would be eaten. Which I think happened here, because I came home from the shops and almost all of them were gone.

Sad. But that's nature. I hope they spawn again, one of my parrots. Would love to see them hatch.

What would I look for if they did hatch? Clear see through tetra looking things?
Should I also turn off my wave/flow pump?
Would they hide amongst the plants in the tank?
Because ill need to catch them if they did hatch. Else the oscars would have a feast