Common Red Devil behavior?

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slickwill

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Feb 25, 2004
Messages
5
Location
Salem, MA
I was watching my red devil and he did something that I have never seen him do before. He took a rock in his mouth and began to attack a rams horn snail with it. He kept this up for about 20 minutes until the snail's shell broke open and then he ate the snail. I don't mind that he ate the snail, it was actually kind of fun to watch, but is this normal behavior for a red devil? (Not to eat a snail, but to beat them with a rock in the mouth)
Also does anyone know of any interesting fish that can live with a red devil and a clownknife? I was thinking about some sort a surface level fish.
 
Red Devil's will most likely fight anything you put in the tank. If your tank is large enough you might get away with a Jack Dempsey or possibly another Devil/Midas. I would say that to keep another with him you would need at least 100 Gal. They are just extremely aggressive, and don't like much company.
 
Once somone brought 2 Red Devils and a Red Pacu into the store for a trade in. They got along just fine...they had been together for a long time, but I can't imagine a Pacu putting up with much.
 
I'm not too surprised to hear that. About a year ago, a large Oscar I had did something very similar with a very large Apple Snail in the tank with him. He grabbed the snail but its 'foot', then swam with it, up to a big rock in the tank, then started thrashing back and forth, banging the snail against the rock, until it broke open, then eating the snail. Takes a Cichlid to use resources like that. That's what happens when you're dealing with such smart fish. As for tankmates for him, all depends on how large the tank is, if its large enough, I'd recommend something like a Jaguar Cichlid, or possibly a Red Terror.
 
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