Blood Parrots and Chinese Algae eaters

[Christian]

I have two blood parrots(that tend to be really agressive), one about 5 inches, the other is 6 or 7(and questionably 100% blood parrot), and 4 green tiger barbs in a 46gal bow front tank. Algea is always growin and i never care, but i decided to get 3 chinese algae eaters(about 2.5/3inches long) to clean up the tank. I thought, they would hide, and eventually the BP's would get used to them. I thought if they hid during the day, like they do, they'll come out at night when the other fish are sleeping, so i peeked into the tank at 12pm, after the room was pitch black for 2 hours, but i could only see sleeping fish and no algae eaters, i peeked in at 5am(i was up and curious) and found the bigger BP with a tail hangin out of his mouth. Good news is he only ate one. Im guessing that their not gonna get along, and i should bring the algae eaters back to the pet shop? Im also guessing theres no other algae eater i could get that wont get eaten or harassed(Ive tried snails but their harassed till they die, than eaten). Anyone have any advice?

[garfieldnfish]

If you can find a grown Chinese Algae eater it will be too big for the blood parrots to eat but will be aggressive itself and may suck the slime coat of the sleeping blood parrots. CAE also cannot be kept together with their own kind because once they mature one will kill the other. CAEs are active during the daytime unlike most plecos that are active during the night. I would try a common pleco, medium size so it's too big already to eat. There are usually plenty of people trying to get rid of one of them once they realize they get too large for their tank. Or a mature bristlenose pleco may work well too. Their armored plated coat protects them reasonably well and one will keep a 46 gal clean.

[Christian]

Thanks for the reply, i just checked up on them and they seemed to be more relaxed. I see the 2 CAE's swimming around and the BP's are kind of ignoring them, maybe it was just the initial reaction to the fish, they expected food and i dumped them in maybe?, idk, I guess ill keep them till they mature a little more and then get rid of them, or maybe ill bring them back now because it's kind of inevitable. Maybe a bristlenose would work better, thanks.