Quoy's Parrottfish

[OctaviusBrine]

Has anyone ever had one of these Quoy's Parrottfish . Super pretty fish. Says its reef safe with cation like most other big pretty fish.

 

[Slocke]

Very difficult. Some have had success by feeding them a ton of nori. Don't be surprised if it munches on corals sometimes. It is a parrotfish.

 

[OctaviusBrine]

Very difficult. Some have had success by feeding them a ton of nori. Don't be surprised if it munches on corals sometimes. It is a parrotfish.

That’s always the struggle that’s for sure. Whether it’s an angel or a cbb as well.

 

[Seancj]

I have one, it's about 6". I've had 'him' for about 6 months. He is a great fish! Stunning colors! I've been lucky in that he has eaten all prepared food (pellet and flake), all types of frozen, and LOVES nori, all from day one! He is a pig. He has not touched a single coral in the tank. He does bite at the rock all day long and then poops out sand, just like his wild counterparts! I've heard that this is how all the world's beaches were made, well, at least according to Sir David Attenborough!
He is very active, out and about all day long!

 

[OctaviusBrine]

I have one, it's about 6". I've had 'him' for about 6 months. He is a great fish! Stunning colors! I've been lucky in that he has eaten all prepared food (pellet and flake), all types of frozen, and LOVES nori, all from day one! He is a pig. He has not touched a single coral in the tank. He does bite at the rock all day long and then poops out sand, just like his wild counterparts! I've heard that this is how all the world's beaches were made, well, at least according to Sir David Attenborough!
He is very active, out and about all day long!

That’s awesome do you have any pictures of the beaut!? There colors seem amazing. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[Maritimer]

I've had several over the years; they're an obsession.

The first one would eat not a single thing in my QT tank, whether nori, frozen, pellets, clam on the half, nori-frozen "burritos" or ham bone. (I was getting desperate.) Two following seemed to do well enough in quarantine, and were introduced to the display. Both grazed algae and coraline all day long, studiously ignoring all corals, and ate almost everything - one even followed the algae scraper to snap up the scraps - but over several months, became thin, lost their color, became gaunt ... and passed.

I've had the current one for . . . four months? Ish? Not quarantined, I'm now relying rather heavily on good-to-over feeding and a UV sterilizer. (Long story.) To date, he's doing well (I've never seen a female; these guys don't often seem to be collected before they transition into their male colors), and is easily the beefiest Quoy's I've ever had. Like the others, he grazes rock and shell all day; some of my conchs are looking the worse for wear - as well as feeding aggressively on small pellets, any and all frozen food (mostly LRS) and every form of nori, but steadfastly avoids nipping at corals and doesn't seem interested in clams in the shell.

Know that they're not easy, and it's not always easy to understand what caused them to decline and die, but they're spectacularly beautiful, no question of that! They're generally inoffensive to other fish, but this one will occasionally give short chase to fairy wrasse, and definitely regards the cleaner wrasse as an annoyance.

There are several other threads regarding Quoy's parrotfish (Scarus quoyi), look them up and glean from the information they offer.

~B.

 

[littlefoxx]

@Cheese Griller has some good info on these guys

 

[Seancj]

Here's a video of my Quoyi. He is a ham and knows he is being filmed.
Video taken during high noon, full spectrum, heavy white, which really shows off his colors!

 

[AaronFReef]

I ruled them out when I saw they grow huge. Too big for my 220. We are talking to well over a foot. In a six foot tank.

 

[Seancj]

I ruled them out when I saw they grow huge. Too big for my 220. We are talking to well over a foot. In a six foot tank.

I've read that they rarely reach 10" in the aquarium. I do think they need at least an 8 foot long tank.

 

[Cheese Griller]

@Cheese Griller has some good info on these guys

Yeah there are very few reports of long-term success with these species, which is suspected to be because of some nutritional deficiency in our aquariums. They are likely consuming some sort of sponge or algae in the wild that doesn’t exist in large enough quantities in our aquariums.

 

[OctaviusBrine]

I've read that they rarely reach 10" in the aquarium. I do think they need at least an 8 foot long tank.

thanks for the video. what size tank do you have? I have a 200gallon display with lots of open space for swimming.

 

[Seancj]

thanks for the video. what size tank do you have? I have a 200gallon display with lots of open space for swimming.

The tank is 360 gallons. 8 feet long x 3 feet wide x 2 feet tall.