Can a blood parrot live with 3 female convicts?

Behavior of my blood parrot cichlids?

• I have a 30 gallon tank with two small convict cichlids and two blood parrot cichlids. We bought the convicts first from a lady who obviously knew little about cichlids and told us all cichlids were fine together in the same tank. We bought the parrot fish the next day and they all seemed to be getting along fine. We found out after, through the internet, that not only are convicts one of the most aggressive fish, but also that they have a tendency to interbreed with blood parrots. We are not sure of the sexes of any of the fish so we are not sure if this will be a problem. Today we noticed one of the parrots has been in our hollow log ornament since last night and has not left and when ever the other parrot tries to enter it pushes it out and wil not let it in. So the other parrot just kind of chills out and hovers at the outside of the log. I am wondering if this behavior has something to do with mating or if its scared of the other convict cichlids? Help?

• Answer:

  It is almost certainly hiding from the Convicts. Convicts are NOT notorious for interbreeding with any other fish, let alone Blood Parrots (which are hybrids themselves, and usually sterile). You've got nothing to worry about as far as interbreeding, but you will need to keep an eye on the aggression, because you could very easily come home to a tank of just 2 Convicts one day, or if the Convicts breed, 2 Convicts and 30 Convict fry. If you have the means to do so, I'd really suggest you separate the two species. Should you choose to keep the Convicts, try surface dwelling fish like Danios, Hatchets, and Killifish. Should you choose to keep the Blood Parrots, a school of large Tetras (Black Skirt, Diamond, Red Eye, etc.) and a shoal of 3-4 small Loaches (Dwarf Chain, Zebra, Yoyo, Burma, etc.) would do nicely. Also, please realize that the Parrots will get too large for a 30 gallon tank, reallistically needing one upwards of 4 feet long as adults; it may be best to rehome them.