DJRansome wrote: Would you mix them with peacocks?
Well, I very much doubt I would ever own a blood parrot so I wouldn't be mixing it with anything. I under stand their appeal, but me personally, not into deformed fish.
I think if you would mix them with any Malawi, you would probably want less aggressive Malawi. It might be possible that they are sufficiently different enough that they would not pay too much attention towards each other, though I've certainly never tried it. In principle, it is no different then the mixes in my tanks.
DJRansome wrote:Regarding the scientific name question...I thought there was at least one pure fish with common name parrot
Yes, the South American cichlid
Hoplarchus psittacus is sometimes called a parrot cichlid, but most people refer to it by it's scientific name or call it the "true parrot". Not a common fish in the hobby, nor are their videos of the fish in over stocked Malawi tanks, as the Op mentions. It is a big cichlid, prone to hole in the head (possibly because it requires soft water), that is unlikely to be kept in a 26 gal. and only be 3 1/2" , 2 years from purchase.
DJRansome wrote: I thought on this fish the tail was sometimes altered to give the fish more of a heart shape?
That is called a heart parrot. Don't think it is too common.
There are others with the word parrot as part of their common name, such as a Jelly Bean Parrot (simply a short bodied 'pink convict') and King Kong Parrot (very expensive and usually ordered from the far East; has a normal mouth but is also thought to be the product of a Midas/RD x synspilum cross).
Generally when some one refers to a cichlid as simply a parrot, they mean a blood parrot.