My blood parrot is becoming a little too assertive

Hi guys! I think my blood parrot cichlid really needs to calm down. He used to be incredibly shy and barely ate anything but once I put him into the main tank and introduced him to the other fish he revealed that he had a really great personality. He became curious and super friendly and has been so for months. Now though, while he's still pretty friendly, he's starting to get bolder than he should be. First of all when I put in my new otocinclus catfish the other day after quarantining them for two weeks he immediately starting chasing one of them. He gets along fine with the 8 corys and betta he lives with and now he's completely leaving the otos alone although they do blend in pretty well. I think he'd get along well for the most part with most other fish I'd put in there but I'm a bit concerned he might hurt or at least badly stress the tiny neon tetras, zebra danios, white clouds and guppies I'm eventually planning on putting in there. Because of that I'm actually considering going with my original plan and creating a medium sized cichlid tank so long as he can hold his own. I just don't know if he'd get singled out since blood parrots aren't aggressive for the most part. In any case that's a decision for another time. What's much more important is that he's started biting me. It doesn't really hurt but sometimes he does it with a lot of enthusiasm so I have concerns about what he could do as he gets larger plus it's making it a little difficult to do reach in there and adjust plants and decorations. Are they capable of breaking skin at all? I've actually been trying to tame him so I can hand feed him and pet him someday. I've gotten him to come up to my hand and he has no problem doing that now but I haven't gotten him to take food from it yet. Would continuing to offer food make him more gentle or would it make the problem worse? Is there any way to mellow him out a little?

 

There’s not really anything you can do but put him
In his own tank. Blood parrots can be aggressive and should really only be kept with fish around the same size or a little bit smaller. Although you’ll never really know until you try

 

He's a cichlid. I've got a pair now and have kept them for years, but they are not community fish. Generally friendly fish but they can have an aggressive streak. He is asserting his dominance, particularly with new fish which is not unusual at all. Despite what you may read, BP's really hold their own with most other cichlids (not green terrors and the like) because of their sheer size. They are a great addition to a cichlid community with larger tetras, barbs, cats, etc. but I wouldn't keep them with smaller fish. Offering him food and teaching him to eat from your hand will not hurt anything. Both of mine will do it and I haven't noticed any change with their behavior, other than they associate my hand with food which makes tank cleaning interesting. A BP cannot harm you by biting you. Very cool fish in the right environment.

 

My first one used to bite me alll the time. He literally almost jumped out of the tank to bite me when I was dropping food in. It shouldn’t hurt or harm you but once he gets big watch out because I have seen marks get left on people’s hand

 

He's a cichlid. I've got a pair now and have kept them for years, but they are not community fish. Generally friendly fish but they can have an aggressive streak. He is asserting his dominance, particularly with new fish which is not unusual at all. Despite what you may read, BP's really hold their own with most other cichlids (not green terrors and the like) because of their sheer size. They are a great addition to a cichlid community with larger tetras, barbs, cats, etc. but I wouldn't keep them with smaller fish. Offering him food and teaching him to eat from your hand will not hurt anything. Both of mine will do it and I haven't noticed any change with their behavior, other than they associate my hand with food which makes tank cleaning interesting. A BP cannot harm you by biting you. Very cool fish in the right environment.

Thanks Fallfever! It sounds like he should come around fine given time and certainly more attention will benefit him a lot so I will continue to try and socialize him. It makes a lot of sense about him trying to show the new additions he's the alpha. I used to have a huge female koi betta that did the same thing, she would immediately go investigate and size up newcomers and she almost always accepted them but she killed at least one male guppy. With the cichlid I'll for sure add new additions slowly and I'll keep carefully experimenting.

My first one used to bite me alll the time. He literally almost jumped out of the tank to bite me when I was dropping food in. It shouldn’t hurt or harm you but once he gets big watch out because I have seen marks get left on people’s hand

Oh man that's crazy! Mine seems to just be curiosity biting for the time being but I'm going to keep working with him and I hope he kicks the habit before he gets big.

There’s not really anything you can do but put him
In his own tank. Blood parrots can be aggressive and should really only be kept with fish around the same size or a little bit smaller. Although you’ll never really know until you try

Yeah it certainly looks like I'm going to have to take more precautions. He's caused no more trouble with the otocinclus catfish and I take that as a good sign but I'll be extra wary about particularly small additions. Maybe I'll try a couple of rosy reds to see how he reacts. If he can leave them alone maybe he can handle some tetras but we'll have to see.