i put the new devil in the 48 inch tank with my oscar. for a few days, the oscar kept harassing him so i thought okay its normal. the devil went into hiding all the time(theres a favourite place for him to hide in). i kept watch everyday..
after about 4 days the devil decided to take over.. he is quite strong bcos previously he was bred in an outdoor pond. over one night, he killed the oscar. the next morning i was like "look wat u did u maniac!".. he was back in his hiding place giving me the "it wasnt me.." look. guess hes still not used to humans looking into the tank yet.
okay i shouldve consulted u guys 1st b4 letting him in the tank. rest in peace oscar..
now, is there any tankmate suitable for this guy? btw, hes a 6 inch male red devil. buttikoferi perhaps? or should i just punish him by giving him the isolation treatment? heheh!

Sorry to hear about your lose. How did it completely kill the Oscar in 1 night? Was there a big chunk bitten from the Oscar?

Moving forward you have 3 basic Options:
1> Keep the RD and get the tank setup for him. Will probably need to remove all fish but the RD.
2> Keep the RD and get a separate tank for the him. Then replace your Oscar in the original tank.
3> Find a new home for the RD; LFS, Friend, etc. then get new Oscar.


Good Luck

God knows how he did it, but he did.. i found the oscar stuck in the bogwood. 80% skin/scales gone. tiger oscar bcame a lutino.. the horor! eyes got sucked out of their sockets. all in one night. im planning to keep the red devil. he owes me too much for me to let em go. heheh! besides, hes quite a fun guy, apart from the evil butcher side of his. love his gold-pinkish colour.

sory for your lose jawsbush
i dont think RD will tolerate any tankmate since its a 48 inch tank, so better give the tank for himself.
buttikoferi might be able to hold off your RD but at some point you will have to move one of them as they grow up in size and aggresion

By all accounts the Red Devil cichlids are extremely aggressive. I don't think they would have been called a red devil otherwise. Anyway, sorry to hear about what happens, at least you can now warn other people about what not to put with the Oscar.

yea.. to all u oscar lovers out there.. do not, i repeat.. DO NOT try this at home!

jawsbush wrote:

Hi jawsbush. I am glad you are going to keep the RD. They are great fish, they get a bad rap because people try to add them to their community tank with out educating themselves first, then they end up hating the RD because it constantly bullies all the other fish and sometimes kills them.

Up until 3 years ago, when I moved to Oregon from California, I kept an RD for 4 years. Mainly kept him by himself most of that time. He had more personality than any other fish ever I had, mainly because their interactions with humans goes far beyond begging for food. He grew up to be very large in his 60 gallon. Here is a pic of him from a few months before I found him a new home before I moved:



Now I currently have another young RD in a 60 gallon, he shares it with a large Jack Dempsey for the moment. And for the time being I don't have to worry about the RD aggression because my JD is much larger and much more aggressive. The RD has to stay far out of the JDs way, or its over for him. Here is a video from a couple of weeks ago of the RD and JD. (they both were too mean for my 140 gallon, so they got demoted ):


Good Luck with your RD. As he matures you will see much more personality.

wow! that devil in the tank with the jack dempsey.. he looks EXACTLY like mine. colour, finnage and all! theyre an exact copy! hahaha! i love it! any tips for a new RD keeper? i mean besides the basic fishkeeping skills..

oh yeah, wat colour do u think that devils gonna turn up to be when he gets older? and wat age/size does he morph colours..?

i know wat u mean by ppl giving up on devils just bcos theyre bullies. well not me.. im well aware of wat its capable of doing. i've researched them for quite some time b4 i actually got them. im not so much into community tanks. thought i could get away with multi-subspecies cichlid tank. guess it didnt work that well. looking at the oscar(RIP) bullying the 5 inch pleco and other fishes that i removed from the tank b4 this, i thought it could handle someone his own size.. heheh! i removed the pleco the night b4 i put the devil in. 1, bcos i dont want to strain the biofilter by adding more fish. 2, i dont think the pleco could handle more punishment from the incoming devil. and 3, i just did a partial washing of the bio ceramics. plecos hav too much crap to be in a non-stable tank. not good for mini-cycles. heheh!

jawsbush wrote:

As far as colors, if yours doesn't have any white at this point then it probably won't get any as it gets older. So it will just get a more pronounced orange color. Pretty much like my past RD as you can see in the pic above. You never have a hard time finding an RD in a tank thats for sure, with their bright color.

As far as tips, I have plenty of different things I have learned from the watching the behavior of this fish over the years, so if you have any specifics just ask. My past RD lived in a 400 gallon outdoor pond for about 4 months during the summer, then when I got him out he was about 6". At that time he lived with 2 full grown african cichlids in my 60 gallon (can't remember the type of africans, but it was a blue one and a yellow one near 4"s long). I found these were the only fish that were tough enough and quick enough to live with him. As the RD approached the 1 foot mark I got rid of the african cichlids and only kept the RD alone. If you really want tank makes you may want to try some quick schooling fish to use as target fish. Ultimately the RD will be the most interesting and happy SOLO style.

aye.. nice. sorry for asking ridiculous questions, but do u think there is any such thing as the "ideal" colour for devils? or its just a matter of personal preferences.. are white spots/patches considered good or bad? any genetic infos on that?
besides africans(theyre quite rare and pricey here), wat other fishes do u recommend as targets?
i think im loving this RD. his glimmering gold eyes are so attractive! way better than flowerhorns red eyes IMO. red looks too mean.. heheh! at wat age/size roughly that their colour and nuchal hump would enhance..? any idea?

your red devil sounds like a psychopath, lol, may want to put some latches on the lids, otherwise you might wake up one morning dead.... lol