Blue Parrot Fish

[PotatoFish]

So, I saw this at a big box store here in Seoul while Little Man and I were looking around for dog poop bags.

Is that blue parrot cichlid the product of breeding or did they do something sinister like dip it in blue whatever-dye-for-fish? It looks so unnatural; I'm just curious to know whether people can actually breed them that way.

The bright yellow parrot cichlid looks pretty cool and far more natural looking than the blue. It's like an mbuna.

[TheSwissAquarist]

How much are they going for?

[gardenman]

Using dye to create uniquely colored fish is not uncommon. Typically a fish is dipped in a lye solution to strip their slime coat, then dyed. It has a high mortality rate, and the color will fade over time, but it gets done a lot. When you see an unnatural appearing fish, it's typically because it's unnatural. Stripes are often added to fishes by injecting dye, but when a fish is overall one color, it's often been dyed. A good clue is to think if you've ever seen an adult version of that fish in that color. If you've never seen an adult fish in that color, then you can assume the young fish was dyed. In order for there to be young fish of a color in stores, there would have needed to be an adult fish of that color. If you've never seen an adult all blue parrot fish, odds are there aren't any and the young fish you see is dyed.