Looking ahead: Blood Parrot?

[bloodlucky]

This weird disease that apparently nobody can identify has swept through almost all of the platies in my 40 gallon tank. Remaining fish consist of one sick ram, 5 neons (appear to be immune) and 6 danios (immune also.) Lets say I kill off this disease, whether that be that the disease literally kills every remaining fish until it has nothing left to live on, or I find another way, I have a whole lot of room left in my tank as this nasty killer disease greatly reduced the population to a whopping 50% of its original state.

If by chance the two remaining platies (of 8!) survive, then I'll only have 2 platies, 1 ram and a few little schooling fish in my 40. Is it possible to maybe add a blood parrot or two? They sell them at 2 Petcos near my house

 

[bloodlucky]

Or maybe hatchetfish? I might get some today

 

[Rivers2k]

If you no longer want your neons and danios you can get a blood parrot. Blood parrots look cute and doofy but they are a cichlid and are as nasty as other cichlids. But a couple would fit in your 40 gallon.

I personally think there ugly but my wife, who I love and will do anything for, thinks they are so cute. She charmed me into getting one and as soon I put it in it terrorized my tank of smaller African cichlids. So I took it back to the store and she no longer worries about the fish in my tank.

 

[NYgiantsRP]

They can be very territorial, but sometime not so much. It all depends on the individual fish. For a 40g I would only recommend 1, if you get 2 there wouldn't be any room for anything else. They grow well over 8". Other semi-aggressive cichlids that would fit your community are rainbows, festivum, and fire mouths. But with the small schoolers, and livebearers I would reccomend gourami(pearl&three spot) and rainbows(bosemani) for your next addition.

 

[bloodlucky]

This idea may be considered way in the future if I have nothing left in my 40 gallon, but for now like you both said, there are other sensitive fish that i want to keep. Gonna go with the hatchetfish tomorrow since I noted that those small schooling types appear to be immune to whatever is killing the platies

 

[azmodan]

Just out of precaution I'd still recommend waiting until your tank is healthy before adding new stock. Why risk it? (Unless you have a quarantine set aside.)