New Cichlid Keeper looking to expand! Advice please!

[InaudibleTerror]

Hi guys, so I've always had a love of animals from a young age and after seeing a beautifully aquascaped tank at a friend's house I was hooked on the hobby.
I started out with a 60l juwel tank which I kept a male Betta in for several years. After having success in keeping him happy and healthy and enjoying him I decided to move to a larger community tank. I sold my 60l and purchased a 50gallon and traded my Betta for store credit. I ran my 50g for 2 years with a mix of the usual community types, angel discus, neon tetra, kissing gourami etc. But, they didn't have the same personality my Betta had and I tired of them somewhat. So, they were given to my previously mentioned friend who houses them in his 500l community tank now.
So, onto my current set up. I now have a lone Red Devil in the 50g that I've kept for a little over a year, and he's so much fun. Hes got fantastic personality, I can easily lose an hour or two running my hands around the tank as he swims parallel to my hand matching speed with my movements, changing direction with me as though my hand were a sibling or buddy he's been playing with for years. This got me to thinking he must be a little bored the rest of the day when I'm not around to play!
So, now I know I love the hobby and I love cichlids!! I feel it's time to upgrade again and get my red devil some proper friends to play with. I'm looking at a 500-600litre set up, where I'll rehouse my red devil with his new pals.
Here's where I need some proper advice.
1. How many adult cichlids can I house with him in a tank this size?
2. What are the best tank mates for him? I really like the jack Dempsey's and jaguar cichlids but what else could be kept with him.
3. I currently feed my red devil a mix of hikari cichlid gold and live blood worms for treats. Do I need to alter his diet? Will his new tank mates need a different diet?
4. Does your tank mate suggestion require special environment? IE does he need to hide?
Sorry for the very long post, I was perhaps a little over zealous to share. But it's really only because I'm having so much fun
Look forward to your replies!!

 

[Covetous]

Even in the tank your suggesting 135-150 gal I believe, forgive me if my conversion is off. A Red devil may not suffer tank mates. It’s a gamble. You could make a lot of hiding places that are far too small for him and try somethtn Like convicts, or you could try to overcrowd the tank to cut back aggression. Or you could simply just try to get a pair and let them breed.

No matter what you do it will be up to the fish. Especially one lone fish that’s been by himself his whole life. So it will be trial and error. Good luck with whatever you decide. And welcome to MFK

 

[Gourami Swami]

Hello,
The first question really depends on your red devil. Some would be fine sharing a 500-600l tank (125-150 gallons about) with other cichlids. Some would declare the tank their territory and kill other cichlids. Each fish is a bit different and it's impossible for us to tell you exactly what will work. It will be a bit easier to tell you what wont work, which would be a jaguar cichlid (too big)
How big is your devil? I think your best bet for tankmates are smaller, similarly aggressive cichlids. If they are smaller, your devil will probably not see them as a threat to his dominance, and will be more tolerant of them. Probably a bit of harmless chasing. Wheras, if you put another adult amphilophus species in the tank, they would most likely fight to the death.
Some species suggestions to try: Salvini, Convict, Jack Dempsey, Nicaraguan.

There is a bit of an art to getting CA cichlid communities to work. You want there to be enough fish that the aggression is distributed, but not so many that they don't have territories. I would say 4 other smaller fish with your devil would be a decent number. And add them all at once, if you drop them in one at a time they will likely be killed. Another tip is to add the other cichlids first, then your devil. If you add him first, he will see the addition of new fish as strangers intruding on his territory.

The diet you listed is fine, pellet staple supplemented with some frozen or freeze dried snacks is the way to go.

 

[tlindsey]

Hi guys, so I've always had a love of animals from a young age and after seeing a beautifully aquascaped tank at a friend's house I was hooked on the hobby.
I started out with a 60l juwel tank which I kept a male Betta in for several years. After having success in keeping him happy and healthy and enjoying him I decided to move to a larger community tank. I sold my 60l and purchased a 50gallon and traded my Betta for store credit. I ran my 50g for 2 years with a mix of the usual community types, angel discus, neon tetra, kissing gourami etc. But, they didn't have the same personality my Betta had and I tired of them somewhat. So, they were given to my previously mentioned friend who houses them in his 500l community tank now.
So, onto my current set up. I now have a lone Red Devil in the 50g that I've kept for a little over a year, and he's so much fun. Hes got fantastic personality, I can easily lose an hour or two running my hands around the tank as he swims parallel to my hand matching speed with my movements, changing direction with me as though my hand were a sibling or buddy he's been playing with for years. This got me to thinking he must be a little bored the rest of the day when I'm not around to play!
So, now I know I love the hobby and I love cichlids!! I feel it's time to upgrade again and get my red devil some proper friends to play with. I'm looking at a 500-600litre set up, where I'll rehouse my red devil with his new pals.
Here's where I need some proper advice.
1. How many adult cichlids can I house with him in a tank this size?
2. What are the best tank mates for him? I really like the jack Dempsey's and jaguar cichlids but what else could be kept with him.
3. I currently feed my red devil a mix of hikari cichlid gold and live blood worms for treats. Do I need to alter his diet? Will his new tank mates need a different diet?
4. Does your tank mate suggestion require special environment? IE does he need to hide?
Sorry for the very long post, I was perhaps a little over zealous to share. But it's really only because I'm having so much fun
Look forward to your replies!!

Welcome aboard!

 

[JasonsPlecosCichlids]

It can be tough at sometimes with the big boys. In my 265 I have a big pearsei and two bocourti, been living together for a while now, out of the blue the pearsei went on a rampage and tore up the other two, I took him out and then the other bocourti in the other tank beat him up bad, so here I am shuffling fish around all beat up, was a bad night. Things can change in an instant.

 

[Trimapit]

It can be tough at sometimes with the big boys. In my 265 I have a big pearsei and two bocourti, been living together for a while now, out of the blue the pearsei went on a rampage and tore up the other two, I took him out and then the other bocourti in the other tank beat him up bad, so here I am shuffling fish around all beat up, was a bad night. Things can change in an instant.

I think every big Cichlid keeper had this experience at least once!!!

 

[Trimapit]

Aquascape the tank and add a big school of dithers. That will keep it busy....