Blood Parrot biting Pleco

Question
Hi,
I have a 7" Blood Parrot, 12" Plecostomus, 4" Jack Dempsey, and a Ropefish in a 65 gallon aquarium with many decorations and plastic plants.  My Pleco is the oldest in the tank and the Blood Parrot is the second oldest.. They have been living together for probably about 3 years now and in the last few months my Blood Parrot is really bothering my Pleco and never did before.  He doesnt really bother any of the other fish except if the Jack Dempsey gets too close to him. Since my Pleco is so big there is only a few spots for him to halfway "hide" to get away from the Parrot and everytime he comes out into the open, the Parrot does like circles over him while rubbing against him then bites his eyes!  I can tell the Pleco gets super annoyed by this because he pushes the Parrot away and then they have a sort of pushing war for a minute before he goes and tries to hide again.  I also hate seeing the Parrot bite his eyes and bug him so bad so I try to stop him with the net or the tube I feed my ropefish with..  

Is this normal behavior?  Could he or (she) be trying to mate with my Pleco? How can I stop this?
I lost a bunch of fish about 4 or so months ago and the Pleco and Blood Parrot were the only 2 that survived and then I added the other 2.  Could that possibly be a reason for this?

Thank you so much for your time!
-Joelle

Answer
Hi Joelle,
  As fish get older, they often get more territorial and I believe that is what you are seeing. You really need to provide some place for the pleco to hide.  The absolute best thing would be a large, thick piece of driftwood that sits almost vertically in the tank.  The pleco will stick onto the side of that, probably on the side away from the rest of the tank, and out of sight of the parrot cichlid.  

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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