10 Best Foods For Blood Parrot Fish – 2024 Reviews & Top Picks
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With their unique dietary needs and mouth shape, choosing a suitable blood parrot fish food is crucial. Offering optimal benefits in color enhancement and high-quality nutrition, we found the Omega One Super Color pellets to be this year’s best blood parrot fish food. However, it’s hardly the only option for concerned fish parents. Discover the top pellets, flakes, and granules for your tank in these reviews of the 10 best foods for blood parrot fish.
A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites in 2024
| Rating | Image | Product | Details | |
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Best Overall
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Omega One Super Color Small Cichlid Pellets |
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Check Price |
Best Value
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Aqueon Medium |
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Check Price |
Premium Choice
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Northfin Cichlid Formula |
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Check Price |
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Hikari Blood Red Parrot+ Fish Food |
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Check Price | |
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Aqueon Cichlid Color Enhancing Pellets |
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Check Price |
The 10 Best Foods for Blood Parrot Fish
1. Omega One Super Color Small Cichlid Pellets – Best Overall
| Type: | Sinking pellet |
| Sizes: | 2 mm |
The Omega One Super Color Cichlid Pellets are an easy choice as the best overall food for blood parrot fish. Though expensive, the extra cost is warranted, and the brand goes the extra step in responsibly sourcing the finest, most well-rounded ingredients to ensure your fish’s optimal growth.
Proving their quality, the 2 mm pellets replace fish meal with salmon and whole herring as the top two ingredients. They’re packed with proteins and omega fatty acids to promote proper development and immune support, while the balanced blend of ingredients covers every nutritional base for your omnivorous blood parrots. Color enhancers like astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, and salmon skins ensure a bright, rich coloration.
- High-quality ingredients
- Full of protein and healthy fats
- Low ash and not cloudy
- Supports development and immunity
- Rich in color enhancers
- Relatively expensive
2. Aqueon Medium – Best Value
| Type: | Sinking pellet |
| Sizes: | 3 mm |
A well-balanced diet at a great price is more than enough reason to give Aqueon Cichlid Food Pellets a try. As our choice for the best blood parrot fish food for the money, these sinking pellets provide the ideal nutritional blend to satisfy every cichlid in the tank.
Fishmeal featuring salmon and herring works alongside krill, squid meal, fish oil, and added vitamins and minerals to keep your blood parrots healthy. Meanwhile, a bouquet of color-enhancing ingredients like natural astaxanthin, chili powder, and marigold powder ensure a vibrant color. Testing a small batch to see how your fish likes it might be helpful since the pellets sometimes don’t sink.
- Well-rounded ingredients
- Low price
- Enhances color well
- Some don’t sink
- Can cloud water
3. Northfin Cichlid Formula – Premium Choice
| Type: | Sinking pellet |
| Sizes: | 3 mm |
Despite the expense, Northfin’s Cichlid Formula should be a top consideration if you want to give your blood parrots an easy-to-eat and reliably healthy daily food.
Featuring only natural ingredients, these slow-sinking pellets are packed with protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals to help your fish’s development while staying gentle on their digestive system. Not all fish take to the flavor, but if yours like the taste, you’ll enjoy the low ash content and color-enhancing benefits.
- All-natural ingredients
- Easy on sensitive stomachs
- Excellent color enhancer
- Relatively expensive
- Not all fish enjoy the taste
4. Hikari Blood Red Parrot+ Fish Food
| Type: | Floating pellet |
| Sizes: | 3 mm |
If color is an issue for your blood parrot, the species-specific Hikari Blood Red Parrot+ formula may be the solution. These floating pellets are easy for fish to grab at the surface, and once ingested, the carefully chosen blend of color enhancers like chili powder and astaxanthin enhance the deep red coloration.
The downsides to the Hikari food are the cost and the relatively high ash content, indicating some excess waste. However, the high protein content and beneficial microbes in this lab-verified nutrient mix optimize digestion to improve nutrient uptake and help your blood parrot live a long and happy life.
- Scientifically developed for blood parrots
- Exceptional color enhancement
- Improves digestibility
- Fish may not like floating pellets
- High ash content
- Expensive
5. Aqueon Cichlid Color Enhancing Pellets
| Type: | Sinking pellet |
| Sizes: | 5 mm |
Aqueon Cichlid Color Enhancing Pellets upgrade their value-priced, blood-parrot-friendly food with an even better blend for your fish’s red hues. The mini pellets are easy to scoop up on their slow descent to the bottom of the tank.
Astaxanthin, marigold extract, and several other color-promoting ingredients feature prominently on the list alongside fish meal, shrimp, and squid that will entice any fish.
- Improved color-enhancing formula
- High in protein
- Excellent value
- Easy-to-eat size
- Limited cloudiness
- Some pellets won’t sink
6. Fluval Bug Bites Granules
| Type: | Floating granules |
| Sizes: | 1–2 mm |
Fluval Bug Bites are protein-packed and healthy pellets that pull their nutrition from unlikely yet sensible sources. Sitting ahead of the salmon, fish protein, and assorted veggies in the mix are dried black soldier fly larvae, which fit well in the fish’s natural diet.
The scientific development of the larvae before processing the food ensures it comes pre-packed with proteins and healthy fats. Cichlids of all kinds love the flavor, and though it isn’t the best color-enhancing blend, it contains enough to maintain your blood parrot’s bright tones.
- Highly palatable
- Excellent nutritional source
- Sustainably sourced ingredients
- Small and easy to eat
- Expensive
7. TetraCichlid Floating Pellets
| Type: | Floating pellet |
| Sizes: | 3–4 mm |
The TetraCichlid Floating Pellets offer a good value on a versatile formula that can delight every cichlid sharing the aquarium. The floating format and the slightly larger pellet size are not convenient for all blood parrots, especially smaller ones, but those that can manage them will enjoy a robust blend of nutrients.
Thoughtful additions of beta-carotene, canthaxanthin, and other color enhancers will help your fish achieve their fullest color potential.
- Rich in proteins and antioxidants
- Doesn’t cloud water
- May be too big for some blood parrots
- Not all fish enjoy the taste
8. TetraCichlid Crisps
| Type: | Floating flakes |
| Sizes: | 3–5 mm |
TetraCichlid Crisps are a tasty treat for any cichlid, including your blood parrots. High in protein and fat, these flakes enhance development and improve digestion to give your fish the most nutritional benefit. The clear water formula decreases the chance of cloudiness, and although the size may be too big for some parrots, you can easily crush the flakes into a more manageable size.
- High in protein and fat
- Versatile for all cichlids
- Reduced cloudiness
- Too big for some parrots
9. Cobalt Aquatics Cichlid Flakes
| Type: | Flakes |
| Sizes: | Varies |
The nutrient-dense Cobalt Aquatics Cichlid Flakes promote optimal development and color while boosting digestion and immunity. Alongside the generous protein and fat content from fish, shrimp, and krill, the blend includes extra vitamins, minerals, and probiotics to keep all your cichlids healthy.
Since they’re long-lasting and unlikely to cloud the tank, these pricey flakes ensure you get the most value from every flake.
- Probiotics promote growth and health
- High protein and fat content
- Limited cloudiness
- Two-year shelf life
- Flakes may be too large
- Expensive
10. Good Partner Cichlid Fish Food
| Type: | Floating pellet |
| Sizes: | 5–2 mm |
Good Partner Cichlid Fish Food boasts high-quality ingredients like salmon, squid, krill, shrimp, and probiotics that enhance the flavor for your fish and ease digestion for sensitive stomachs. Added nutrients like bile acids, taurine, and lecithin benefit your fish with each bite.
The balanced omnivore blend is perfect for a blood parrot, as are the bite-sized morsels and color-enhancing natural ingredients.
- High-quality, all-natural ingredients
- Keeps water clear
- Improves digestion and development
- Relatively expensive
Buyer’s Guide: Selecting The Best Food For Blood Parrot Fish
Blood Parrot Cichlid Diet
The Blood Parrot Cichlid has a pretty simple diet that you must adhere to. Cichlids will eat a lot of different foods. They don’t mind flake foods, but they prefer slow-sinking pellet foods over most others.
Moreover, these fish love to eat protein, and yes, they need lots of it. Fish parts, seafood, worms, and insects are all things that you can feed to your Cichlid. Anything with a high amount of animal-based protein is beneficial for blood parrots.
Also, they do require a bit of plant matter, especially when it comes to minerals, vitamins, and spirulina. They do need more meat-based foods than plant foods, but it does need to be well-balanced. Some of their favorite treats include small shrimp and blood worms.
How To Enhance Color Of Parrot Fish
If you want to ensure that your Cichlid is as red as can be, and you want to enhance its color, you need to feed it a lot of foods that contain natural pigments that their bodies will absorb. This means feeding them foods that are high in B-carotene and canthaxanthin. Yes, a little bit of carrot is an option here.
How Often Should I Feed My Blood Parrot Fish?
Blood Parrot Cichlids are quite voracious eaters and you can feed them a fair amount of food. Generally speaking, you want to feed your blood parrot twice per day, and you want to keep a regular pattern, such as once at 8 am and once at 8 pm.
Moreover, you should feed them no more than they can consume in about 3 minutes. You need to take care not to overfeed them as they can get chunky and develop health issues related to overeating.
Final Thoughts
Boasting excellent value due to it is thoughtful ingredients and color-enhancing ability, the Omega One Super Color Small Cichlid Pellets earned our top pick among blood parrot fish foods. For budget-conscious buyers, a strong selection of blood parrot-friendly foods from Aqueon offers comfortably cost-efficient options. Follow these reviews of the best foods for blood parrots to unlock your fish’s fullest potential and ensure a long and happy life.
Featured Image Credit: Retro Lenses, Wikimedia Commons CC 4.0 International
