Blood parrot tank mates and schooling/schoaling fish

[ryan.2503]

Hello,

I am new to fish keeping, I have a 40 gallon breeder. I also love blood parrots. My LFS has some and said I could keep them in the 40B— as did other sources. I was wondering what other fish to put with the parrot cichlid. I DO NOT WANT TO OVERSTOCK, and I know the parrot is already going to take up the majority of the space, so i’m hoping for some other smaller fish (that the parrot will not be able to eat!) to be tank mates. Heard a lot of suggestions for danios. Some people suggest smaller cichlids, while others swear against it! Let me know what you suggest!

 

[Sicklid]

I have one male BP and a male Polar Blue Parrot in a 55 with lamp eye tetras, and they’re fine. Nobody gets eaten. Whatever you put in there has to be fast and robust, and too big to eat. Also, the tetras seem to stay at the surface and the cichlids keep to their caves. It helps if you have hides or caves for them.

 

[Andy Sager]

Look into Giant Danios as they get larger than than the most common Zebras, Pearls, Glos or similar. Just make sure you have a lid on the tank as they will jump. There are smaller cichlids like Acaras or Rainbows or Convicts but you are only really safe to get one of these. If you want more action in the tank, I'd consider schooling types of catfish, or even Barb species that get large enough to not get eaten ( i.e. Tiger Barbs, Black Rubys, Golds, T-barbs, etc. )
There are a number of fish that can be kept with parrots but you are limited because you only have a 3' long tank.
Hope this helps.