Blood Parrot Cychlid question

Question
QUESTION: I was wondering if you could tell me if blood parrot cychlids are, in fact, bred inhumanely... and if so, will they pass on anything to my other fish and kill them off?  Please get back to me ASAP!
ANSWER: Hi Nancy
I'm not sure if I completely understand all your asking.  Do you mean the actual breeding process?  That I wouldn't be familiar with.  I'd say a majority of that occurs overseas in fish farms, Thailand, Phillipines etc.  They keep a lot of their stuff secret, like what exactly a blood parrot is mixed/bred with, whether or not they use hormones to render the male parrots sterile, etc.  If you're referring to some of the fish that are dyed, or sold as tailless, or unicorn parrots, they aren't bred that way, they're injected with dyes and mutilated(tail cut off) after they're born.  A lot of people have misunderstanding and think the fish are born this way, but they're not.

And passing something on to the other fish, do you mean if they breed with the other fish?  If so, the above stuff I mentioned is created in the fish after it's born, so it's not a genetic issue with them.  Male parrots are for the most part sterile, a female may be able to breed with a jelly bean and possibly a severum or red devil/midas.  

Sorry, but if I'm totally off from what you're asking let me know.

Christy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Christy,

I mean, is it considered inhumane to purchase the parrot cychlid?  Also, I
meant that if the fish is in the same tank with other cichlids, will it hurt them
b/c it's "mutated"?

Answer
Hi Nancy
I have several parrot fish, and they're my favorites.  I will not buy the dyed or mutilated ones though, any encourage everyone not to.  But it depends on who you ask.  There's some folks that believe it's wrong to buy the fish because they're not "pure", and other's don't have a problem with them.  

In a tank with other cichlids, they should be fine.  It all depends on the personality of each individual fish really.  Over the years, I've had 1 parrot fish in a community tank, the only thing it ate were the neons lol.  Got along fine with everything else in there.  I've had some with an oscar.  The parrot kept the oscar in it's place.  A lot of people say parrot's can't defend themselves properly because they're mouths don't close.  That's so not true.  I've been the victim of a parrot fish bite(not nearly as bad as my Midas/red devil) was a pretty good pinch  though.  They can hold their own pretty good, but it's still a good idea to watch them to make sure they're not picked on, and not incessantly picking on others as well.  I've heard of some extremely mean ones, but I've heard that with other fish as well.  The fact that they're a hybrid doesn't have any factor on hurting other fish.  If you're looking at getting one, or have one, here's a great blood parrot forum, lots of great info on them and the people are super friendly and informative, need to copy/paste to your browser:

http://www.bloodparrots.co.uk/forum/

Hope that answer was better :)

Christy