How Well Can A Good Sized Red Devil Defend Itself?

[Gatorbait]

What other fish do you have?

IME, and from friends that have had them, they are very good at defending themselves against any other cichlids close to their size. Most labiatus have a psycho stage and once they hit that they can sometimes go on a killing rampage. Some others don't get pshycho and can live well in large aquariums with other aggressive cichlids and only fight to defend their territory and are otherwise ok.

Edit: As far as if you can get one that will instantly fight when you put him in, I don't know if you'll have much luck with that with any cichlid. Being new to a tank, he doesn't have anything to fight for ie. territory so they will probably not even bother and hide in the corners.

Thank you very much, good advice, that helps alot. I think I will try and find a larger RD and put him in when I have a day off so I can keep a very close watch on him. If I can find one that looks like he could make it through the 1st couple of days I think Ill be in good shape. If not, at least Ill be home to pull him out before any damage is done. Thanx again!!!

No problem. I hope it works out for you.

I'm sure you already know this and have a lot of knowledge or you wouldn't attempt to overcome compatibility issues but what I do is a large wc and moving the decorations around. As a last resort, depending on how much I wanted the new fish I was adding, I would take all of the other fish out and put them in another tank for a couple days and let the smaller or bullied one have the show tank for a day or two. Then he will defend himself more from others since he thinks it's "his" territory and home.

I hope you post back and let us know if it worked out. That's how I learn for future advice also.

 

[Nevergone815]

I hope you post back and let us know if it worked out. That's how I learn for future advice also.

Same here. This is the best learning advice and tips. No 2 situations are EVER the same. Something is always slightly different.