Red Devil Questions
Ron de Vries
with a red devil but I've got a few questions for the experts before I
do. Here they are in no particular order:
(1)Is a 75 gal. going to be big enough?
(2)Can I put any other fish in with the devil and expect them to live?
If so, what?
(3)Does a one fish tank stay interesting? What does a devil do when he's
not eating or defending his territory?
(4)Is the bite of a devil something to worry about? If so (cool! ) and
how do I clean the tank?
(5)Are they difficult to breed? How do you sex them? Can two devils
co-exist in one 75 gal. tank? (assuming one is female)
(6)Is such a large tank harder/more time consuming to maintain than say
the 29 gal. I have now?
(7)How smart are they? Will they come to know meand associate me with
food as other cichlids do or will he just attack me?
(8)Do you have any interesting stories about red devils?
Thanks in advance for any replies!
owen
Patrick & Kimberly Draves
1. A one-fish tank doesn't generally stay interesting. It is neat at
first, and of course depends upon
the fish, but eventually you will want more than one fish in there.
2. Unsure of any tankmates that may survive in a 75 with the red devil.
Something fast and mean
may survive, like a pair of convicts or a pair of neets. Maybe another red
devil to mate with instead?
They are no harder to breed than any other mean, mean, mean cichlids. Read
as: they are hard to
mate to the extent that they may kill each other. You could always try it
with a tank divider that has a
hole small enough for the (smaller) female to fit through but not the
(larger) male.
3. The bite of a red devil is no more to worry about than the bite of any
of the large, aggressive
cichlids. A friend who works at the LFS was bitten by a 9" red devil male
and she said it hurt quite
a lot.
4. They are intelligent and personable. They will come to know you. They
will still bite you on
occasion, but I wouldn't worry about it (they still aren't piranha).
5. The red devil is a beautiful and relatively hardy fish that is a good
candidate for a single-fish tank,
but is very homicidal (in general). They vary a great deal in this. I was
unable to keep a red devil in
my 90 g with other central americans (texas cichlid, carpinte, fenestratums,
convicts), he became a
maniac at 4". My friends brother has a 7" red devil in a 55g with about 7-8
other american and african
cichlids. So, your mileage may vary.
Jette.S...@fin.gc.ca
devri...@home.com wrote:
> Hey there! I'm thinking of setting up a 75 gal. aquarium and stocking
it with a red devil but I've got a few questions for the experts before
> I do. Here they are in no particular order:
>
> (1)Is a 75 gal. going to be big enough?
> (2)Can I put any other fish in with the devil and expect them to live?
> If so, what?
Some fish will survive with a red Devil (especially if they are bigger).
Ex.: Plecostomus, Claritus (a very aggressive catfish), Snake Head,
bigger Shovel nose, bigger polypterus, most aggressive fish.
Or fish that taste really so bad that the red Devil won't touch them.
Ex.: Black rope fish or electric fish (no fish touch more than once or
twice an electric fish) and both of those fish will tend to hide
themselves well.
Note that you might have to remove one of the fish when it become
evident that it won't survive. That's a typical rule when you keep
aggressive fish together.
A red devil will normally survive very well with a (hard shell) turtle
of it's size.
> (3)Does a one fish tank stay interesting? What does a devil do when
> he's not eating or defending his territory?
Like most Cichlids, he will patrol is tank and move the gravel around.
If he has a competitor, he will periodically to frequently give him a
shot. That's usually funny with turtle since they don't get hurt, but
with other fish it can become problematic.
> (4)Is the bite of a devil something to worry about? If so (cool! ) and
> how do I clean the tank?
It surprises more then it hurt when the red devil is small. Its bite
doesn't cut, so it's not that bad. You might want to keep in check a
larger red devil; it's smart enough to eventually remember that a hand
is an out of reach contender. Or can just isolate the fish with a net.
> (5)Are they difficult to breed? How do you sex them? Can two devils
> co-exist in one 75 gal. tank? (assuming one is female)
I would hardly see two large red Devil in a 75 gal tank, but you might
want to try it. Just be prepared to remove one of them.
> (6)Is such a large tank harder/more time consuming to maintain than
say the 29 gal. I have now?
Personally, I always find that larger tank are less trouble than
smaller one. Once you reach an equilibrium, the water of a larger tank
is much more stable and develops a bio-cycle of it's own. You will
normally get an external filter, which I find easier to clean than
internal ones.
> (7)How smart are they? Will they come to know meand associate me with
> food as other cichlids do or will he just attack me?
They are mostly like other cichlids. I would place them on the smarter
side.
> (8)Do you have any interesting stories about red devils?
A red devil is real life fighter, which consider that the world is
against him. The fish is very resistant to water condition and to
bigger fish. They are really fun fishes to have, but it's challenge to
match them with other fish. (Forget about live plants if you though of
it.)
>
> Thanks in advance for any replies!
>
> owen
>
--
Stéphane Jetté
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
aspen
wouldn't give it any more. a one fish is nice to look at,
but it's still one fish in a tank. i have a dark
background, black gravel, and about fifty bright blue
marbles and it looks really cool at night. the tank size
probably wouldn't matter because in the wild that fish might
claim a terrirory of maybe 14' square and anything less is
just not enough. any other fish might spend all their time
defending or attacking. not the kind of tank i want to
watch.
mine comes to the top to be interacted with and sometimes
petted, but i would not feed it by hand, the owner of my lfs
has been raising red devils and many other cichlids for many
years, and he has been bitten and drawn blood several times
by red devils. i could take food out of my pit-bull's mouth,
but i would not hand-feed my fish.my fish moves gravel,
marbles and anything else you put in the tank(gone fishing
sign, diver, 12" rock decorations). if you like a tidy tank
you will be smoothing out gravel a lot. mine makes a pile in
the middle of the tank 8 inches high and bare glass on
either side in two days. make sure that you keep the lid
closed tightly, mine jumped out of the tank and lost a few
scales and constantly batters the top which has a 1/2 brick
on it.
breeding starts with the two fish running at each other,
locking jaws, and shaking. often one is killed or has their
jaw bitten off, ending the courting. you have to put a
divider with a piece of clay or rock next to it. the female
lays eggs and the male shoots to fertilize the eggs. a long
120 might be alright but i have no direct knowledge.
about the thing of this fish coming to know you. i didn't
barely look at this fish for ten years. it was my daughter's
fish(sold as a first fish, but that's another story). three
months ago i took full control over the maintenance. she has
come to know me but still likes my wife better than me. she
took care of the fish for about a year. when i first started
taking care of her, she hated the guy who was catching her,
cleaning her tank and messing with her. she would be sitting
in her tank with her fins down with my wife, and when i come
in her fins would go up. looking at her through the glass
you kwow you are really watching a smart fish.
* Sent from AltaVista http://www.altavista.com Where you can also find related Web Pages, Images, Audios, Videos, News, and Shopping. Smart is Beautiful
ton...@pop.tcsn.uswest.net
aggressive and always looking to bully. Managuese have the muscles but
generally wants food to eat. The jags always give way to the devils but I
believe the devils know that the jags are probably more powerful...just look
at the jaws. Geez.
A comparable big fish who has the capability to defend itself without
getting into fights with the devil is key. I had a green terror who
wouldn't back down. Devil 1, Terror 0.
Gabriel Hylander
I have a nice barred 7" devil (midas possibly)
in a 100 gallon along with a budda, 2 managuense
black belt and red pike. I tried adding an equal sized frederick stalli
but he was dead the next morning.....
My roomate has a 12" devil with a 7" dovii in a 75
...they fight all the time but it's quite entertaining.....
because they don't do too much damage to each other.