MiDevil ...,

[impala]

I currently have an empty 175g except for three 8-9" Royal plecos (L190). Filtration consists of two Eheim Pro cannisters, 2250/2262. I'm planning to purchase 10 Red Devil/Midas hybrids from my lfs with my goal being to pick and choose my favorite body shape, color and best nuchal hump as they grow out ending up with one monster wet pet.

I've been reading everything I could find on Red Devils/Midas but am still unclear about how long I could keep them together. My understanding is that once they start pairing up the drama begins, will removing the females as they pair up allow me to keep a group of males together until their permanent colors are in ?

I will provide multiple territories with wood, rocks and various clay pots and can do as many water changes as it takes to keep nitrates below 20ppm (and feed a variety of quality foods). Hopefully there's a good chance that being raised with my plecos the MiDevils will tolerate them in the long run ?

Should add that unloading MiDevils will be no problem with all the lfs in my area and a couple have them coming this week, I can hardly wait !

 

[Cichlidshady]

With Plecos that size they will be fine for at least a year plus. They are armored catfish and have never seen a cichlid kill one that was abouve 6 inches. Most of the time They will ignore plecos IME until they start breeding no matter how aggressive and I don't think they can do very serious damage to them anyways

 

[ragin_cajun]

Yeah, you can keep a group in a 125 for a while. At some point, they'll start fighting too much. Problem is, they might get violent before they're old enough for you to picke the best one. That's happened to me with Vieja in a 125. Other thing I'd be worried about is getting food to the Royal's. I had a L177 with bigger cichlids, and the cichlids learned to find food in the dark. So they'd eat all the algae tabs and Pleco pellets I put out for the pleco. If you're feeding the Royals any kind of pellet, the RD's will rob it.

 

[impala]

With Plecos that size they will be fine for at least a year plus. They are armored catfish and have never seen a cichlid kill one that was abouve 6 inches. Most of the time They will ignore plecos IME until they start breeding no matter how aggressive and I don't think they can do very serious damage to them anyways

Thanks for your input, love my Royals, hope they're good with an adult MiDevil for the long run.

 

[impala]

Yeah, you can keep a group in a 125 for a while. At some point, they'll start fighting too much. Problem is, they might get violent before they're old enough for you to picke the best one. That's happened to me with Vieja in a 125. Other thing I'd be worried about is getting food to the Royal's. I had a L177 with bigger cichlids, and the cichlids learned to find food in the dark. So they'd eat all the algae tabs and Pleco pellets I put out for the pleco. If you're feeding the Royals any kind of pellet, the RD's will rob it.

Thanks for your reply, if they get too violent I'll just have to pick and hope for the best, either way I'm sure I wont be disappointed.

Interesting point with the pleco food, I feed a lot of zucchini and sweet potatoe. May have to leave the wafers in tubes/caves that are too small for the cichlids.

I've grown out Oscars (with Royals) in the past, can RDs/Midas be over fed ?

 

[ehh]

In a big tank like that they're going to pair off so fast. The female will be able to lay viable eggs around 3".
I'm sure you'll have a couple males larger than the others but I think you'll have spawning before you can make your choice.
Also, have you seen the parents? My midevil is around three years old and he shows no sign of a nuchal hump.
That's a really big and think they'll be ok in there for a while but I'd put money that you get spawning really fast.

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

I've heard of midevils grabbing plecos by the tail and whipping them against the sides of tanks and rocks. Mine was raised with guppies and corydoras he's never even bitten a fish he just nudges them when they get too rowdy at night. Juvenile fish with intelligence are always going to have a personality toss up

 

[impala]

In a big tank like that they're going to pair off so fast. The female will be able to lay viable eggs around 3".
I'm sure you'll have a couple males larger than the others but I think you'll have spawning before you can make your choice.
Also, have you seen the parents? My midevil is around three years old and he shows no sign of a nuchal hump.
That's a really big and think they'll be ok in there for a while but I'd put money that you get spawning really fast.[/QUOT

Wont be seeing the parents since these will be common hybrids sold as Red Devils at a lfs. Sounds like this is going to be more challenging than I thought. Hopefully out of ten at least one may show a promising little nuchal hump at a young age.

Thanks for your input ehh.

 

[impala]

Don't know what happen with happen with my quote/reply to ehh. o_0

"Wont be seeing the parents since these will be common hybrids sold as Red Devils at a lfs. Sounds like this is going to be more challenging than I thought. Hopefully out of ten at least one may show a promising little nuchal hump at a young age".

Thanks for your input ehh.

 

[impala]

I've heard of midevils grabbing plecos by the tail and whipping them against the sides of tanks and rocks. Mine was raised with guppies and corydoras he's never even bitten a fish he just nudges them when they get too rowdy at night. Juvenile fish with intelligence are always going to have a personality toss up

"toss up" Nice play on words, lol. That my be a deal breaker for me, would hate to have to choose between my Royals and a grown out Midevil. Thanks FFHF.