red terrors
- Thread starter convict84
- Start date
In my opinion, As juvies you can grow them out with a number of other fish. once they start reaching maturity and some size youll need somewhere around a 150 or larger for single festae and tankmates. if you have a pair then 180 or larger. the larger the better. If you decide no tankmates then a 75 will work for a pair and have divider ready. good luck.
yeah bigger is definitely better but depends if your going to keep a pair or just one, guy i know out here has a pair in a 210 or 240 (forget which but its over 200g) and had them with other cichlids and they did fine until they spawned and then in one day killed all the other fish in his tank! but im thinking about possibly keeping a lone female (from one of his fry) in my 125 with tankmates but she will definitely have to be closely watched and she should grow slow enough for me to be able to buy a bigger tank if needed eventually
GOOD LUCK though they are definitely gorgeous fish!
GOOD LUCK though they are definitely gorgeous fish!
I had a 11" male in a 125 with tank mates for a long time, but I hear the females are more agressive towards other species
Singularly females seem to be more accepting of other new world tankmates at least it's been that way at my house - the male 100% intolernate of an other large new world cichlid. He will relentlessly hunt them down til' death. A pair in my experience can live in a 75 til they breed - then the female becomes his target hence divider. Currently in a 125 my pair make nests 3 ft long - they require lotsa room - the more room the better the chance of tankmates. I've seen video on this site w/ RT pairs and - plecos,bichirs,cats, hooks, silver dollars,and Dat's- "note" none of these are other cichlids.
also have to be careful with non cichlids as well with the guy i know he had a synodontis cat and this was the only fish he could save by giving it someone but i guess non cichlids would work in that they would be the last thing the reds would attack but they may still do it when they are protecting their eggs/fry, but like everything else it has a lot to do witht he individual fish and trial and error in my friends case his situation worked for a long time in community with others and everything worked......until they bred then it was massacre within a day but maybe if you start out with no other cichlids they may not go into that kill everything mode, i mean apparently from what otherone said there are tanks out there that make it work