I just want to say there is soo much wrong things printed about this fish. I have 4 and they do very well in my with my fire mouth i have kept them with several kinds of cichlids with no problems. JUST to clear up some things about this fish this fish is a hybrid=TRUE it is a hybrid like a lot of other fish in the hobby are it comes from the Cichlasoma cichlid family which would include red head,midas,severum,or red devil cichlid which are all closely related.Its not like trying to crossbreed an african cichlid with a south american cichlid or even trying to crossbreed a ram with an angel fish the gene code just does not match. THE BLOOD PARROT HAS A HARD TIME COMPETING FOR FOOD=FALSE I have never seen a blood parrot having a hard time competing for food never have i seen one starve to death b/c of not been able to get food.I have seen them even with african cichlids getting there food!
BLOOD PARROTS HAS SWIM ISSUES=FALSE .My parrot swims great even hard to catch! They have been known to jump out of tanks!
Mines will even jump out of water to grab food from my hand.IN my opinion they r very good swimmers. YOU CANNOT BREED PARROTS=TRUE/FALSE MOST males r infertile but there has been cases where they have bred rare but it has happen otherwise u can breed females with firemouths,convicts,severums cichlids exc.... PARROTS CANNOT HOLD THEIR OWN AGAINST OTHER CICHLIDS=FALSE.MY BLOOD PARROTS HAVE ALWAYS HELD THEIR OWN EVEN CHASING OTHER FISH.THEY MIGHT NOT ALWAYS BE THE KING OF THE TANK BUT IN MOST CASES THEY WON'T BE THE LAST. PARROTS CANNOT DAMAGE OTHER FISH=FALSE .Even with that open mouth i seen them cause damage to other fish even able to bite my hand and finger! BUT LOOK OUT FOR THE KING KONG PARROT THEY CAN CLOSE THEIR MOUTH ALL THE WAY AND FOR SURE CAN CAUSE DAMAGE.
SO IN CONCLUSION BLOOD PARROTS R GREAT FISH mildly aggressive does well in a community tank and live up to 10-15 years.
I DON'T THINK YOU WOULD REGRET KEEPING THIS FISH!

Thank you for this fascinating post I don't know anything about blood parrots so this is good information to learn and it's always important to dispel myths when it comes to fish keeping. Most people start out ignorant to many different aspects of fish husbandry and some people don't think to research each new species of fish they get, assuming that their needs are all more or less the same.

What a great write up! It's good to see such an in-depth overview of blood parrots. They seem like well rounded fish - not so aggressive that they can't be kept in a community tank, but not so peaceful that they can't hold their own. I'll have to keep them in mind, they sound like fun characters to add to a tank, as long as tankmates are chosen wisely.