Any hope for a mid-devil tankmate

[sherman]

My mid-devil has killed his two tankmates overnight. He's 5inches long.The others were a 4inch flowerhorn and 3inch dovii. They were in a 125 gal growout. Dont know if I should try something a bit bigger than him,like a jag. Or just trade him and start over with a whole new stock.Really would like to see more than one fish in there growing out.An he gave me that
devilish look like yeah I did it..

 

[cacichlids]

Midas/RD are extremely aggressive and are often kept by themselves... but so are dovii and flowerhorn, so it was just a matter of time until one of them turned on their tank mates. There's Midas out there living in community setups but it's not something common. You can house an adult male midas in a 75 gal by himself.

If you're not into a single fish or "wet pet" you should consider returning the midas/rd and getting other fish that are easier to house in a tank with other cichlids, there's hundreds of choices.

 

[Red Devil Horde]

True...
But all the fish he had in his tank are considered "Wet Pets".
125G is probably good for the dovi alone.

Try smaller cichlids like cons as dithers.
My male messed up all the fish I've tried, but my "hybrid" seem to work with him.
They're much smaller then him, but big enough not to be considered a snack.

My lil guy is showing his "inner devil" he's lip locking & chasing his tankmates.
It's almost time to move him out of the QT tank.(few more days)
I'll see if the move will change his attitude.

 

[balton777]

Trade the Devil if you're not into that kind of fish. He's not even mature and already going on killing sprees. It's only going to get worse.

 

[Sixx101]

Trade the Devil if you're not into that kind of fish. He's not even mature and already going on killing sprees. It's only going to get worse.

Not all true.. I have had red devils that got extremely aggressive towards their age of sexual maturity only to calm down when they got older.

 

[balton777]

Ok then, it seems Sixx thinks you should keep him...and thats fine too.

Sherman, it's ulitmately your decision but I think the RD will get more aggressive as he grows. You could try some smaller convicts or something but you'll be very limited on choices if you keep him. My .02

 

[cacichlids]

Most of them do get more aggressive as they grow, especially if they grow in a tank by themselves.

It's simply not an easy task and I definitely wouldn't risk adding any expensive fish to a Midas tank because there's always a chance that you will wake up to floating $20 corpses. If you want a community, go with other fish. There's plenty of more colorful, less aggressive fish that can be as big and personable as Midas/RD. Not worth the headache imo. But I'd definitely love to keep one by itself some day.

 

[davew]

mine is about 5" now and i cannot keep anything in the tank with him, i tried a school of 10 tiger barbs all killed, tried a convict killed as well also had to remove my fully grown male bristlenose before the devil destroyed it.
so i'm fairly sure that i can't keep anything with mine but i'm not bothered as was only really interested in keeping him as a wet pet anyway

 

[Experiment397]

My lfs has them in with dovii, red Texas , and flowerhorns. Ive heard of them being kept with tiger barbs though. Like 1 rd with 40 or so barbs

 

[Red Devil Horde]

My male was insane @ 5", he's still a jerk @ 10" but hasn't killed his tankmates(yet).
He used to try to attack me through the glass @ 5" too, now he just greets me & begs for food.
He won't accept my female who is insane & about 6"-7", she still attacks me through the glass.

I mentioned adding cons since they're a dime a dozen & have a better chance surviving than any other dithers.
You could probably find some for free, I know theres lots of free cons in my area.
Provide lots of cover for the cons/smaller fish too.
If it doesn't work out let him grow a bit more & try again later.