Blood Parrot Cichlid

[Diesel]

Does anyone have experiences with the Blood Parrot Cichlid?? Are they aggressive?

What other kinds of beautiful fish (not too small) that I can keep with?

 

[TracyRee]

I've been keeping them for years and adore them.

Current tankmates are angelfish, rams, cory cats, clow pleco. I've kept blackskirts, gouramis and all kinds of tetras with them

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

The vast majority of blood parrots I've seen tend to get rather belligerent as they grow- some to the point of having to be housed either by themselves, or with other "rowdies".

Of course, they're cichlids, so they're just like people: no two are alike.

 

[TracyRee]

Mine must be weird....they've never shown any aggression unless someone else starts it. The anglfish think they can beat up on them sometimes and the BP's put them in their place. The BP's never start it though I have heard that their temperments can vary a lot though.

 

[neide]

I've got two huge ones, and one smaller one. The large ones I've had for close to 3 years. While they definetly rule the tank, they aren't agressive generally and in the past have even ignored several smaller chiclids they could have easily consumed in one swallow.

Probably the funniest thing about Parrots is that they constantly try to mate. Its kind of sad in a way, they lay eggs every couple of weeks or so, but my understanding is that because they are a crossbread they are completely sterile.

 

[Diesel]

Can I put a Gold Severum with the Parrots?

or they are too aggressive for them?

 

[Pufferpunk]

Parrots are actually a cross between a gold severum & a red devil. Mine picks on a frontosa larger than her.

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

You could keep gold severums and BPs together: again, it's a matter of the disposition of the individual fish you're trying to keep together. Although I've heard of sevs that've got really nasty dispositions, for the most part they're relatively peaceful fish (as far as cichlids go) that can hold their own with other large, boisterous fish. I've never had any that were foul-tempered.

If you do try to keep them together, I'd suggest getting fish all about the same size and introduce all of them at once. That way, each fish has an opportunity to participate in establishing the pecking order of who rules the tank and no one has an unfair size advantage.