Honestly, you have the patience of a saint. Even when I kept monsters, I tended to keep tanks that were pretty peaceful, populated by predators that wouldn't bother something they couldn't eat. If I had a community like yours, where I would have to enter the room every day wondering who was beat up, who had a torn lip or ripped fin, who is ganging up on whom, who is so stressed out by all the fighting that he is constantly getting sick, I would end it quickly...and I wouldn't be putting all those heavy hitters together in the first place, for fear of stress on me.
Your tank has so much popping, bopping, smacking, lip-locking, flaring, chasing and other general mayhem that I really need to prep myself before I even visit this thread.
LOL I knew nothing of cichlids prior to 2019...I came to this site and lurked for months. Then I thought it would be cool to have personable fish so I saved up for my biggest tank. 8 weeks of cycling was torture, I was so excited to get an Oscar. And parrots appealed to me too. I was even driving out to the lfs and 'window shopping' a few times.
After I got the fish stuff went sideways in about a week. I scrambled to get temporary housing, separating the parrots. So over time I've had various combinations that got me mixed results. The only fish that totally drove me crazy was my severum Chip. NOTHING worked with that fish, and I wasn't prepared to have another solo at the time.
The dynamic flips on a dime I've found out. It can be another fish, territory, mood, age, or most any damn thing. The last few days have been quiet. Mostly because
somebody has walled off the third wheel with plants. I adjust the plants, they get moved back. This same third wheel has finally learned how to use other areas of the tank. The synos are neutral and stay the hell out of the way.
So of course after 5 days of quiet there had to be an outbreak. I was changing filter floss on the solo tanks when Bobo the chocolate decided to bull his way through some plants and invade hostile turf. He goes after Boss (BP). Boss grabs the side of his lip, shakes, and pushes the choc sideways. Bobo tries to lip lock but their mouths don't line up at all. Only thing he does is scuff Boss on the nose a bit but it doesn't slow down the parrot. So then Boss pretty much pushes him sideways across the tank until Bobo swims away. Like I said before Bobo's big but he can't fight worth ####. And these fish aren't stupid, they know when they have another fish's number.
Sometimes Boss will fold his fins around Bobo and scoot past (like he's afraid) but he won't get out of the way either. He gets Bobo to go after him then swims head on at the Oscar. So of course the Oscar goes right after the chocolate. Then the parrot swims off like nothing. Slick move. It's a sucker play Bobo falls for each time.
Pepper the rainbow is actually pretty mellow when he isn't whacking the synos for fun. He keeps Bobo company more now. No issues with the O or BP.
Brick runs Bobo around for exercise sometimes, he isn't always serious. If I give the chocolate attention he races over to get some too. My BP Tango is so nervous at times its annoying. If I covered his tank in black velvet he'd still jump around.
Believe it or not the main tank is pretty sleepy 80 percent of the time. Its the 20 percent that gets stupid. These Cichlids have been awesome and a PITA at the same time.
