How many red jewel together?

[torres]

Planning on having a tank just for red jewels, i know they are aggressive as ive kept some before and got a new one.
So the question is, can i keep around 5 males together in a 50 gallon? or they will kill each other to death?
Also, will they only show full color when breeding? I had a pair that looked beautiful when breeding, but this new one is the only jewel and looks a bit dull..
Thanks.

 

[Crawdaddy]

I have two in with my other cichlids. Unfortunately both turned out to be male. Neither one is aggressive, but only the dominant one colors up. He's beautiful, the other has a washed out color. I would guess that with five, only one would really color up, and if he doesn't beat the others to death, they wouldn't show their colors.

 

[Congoman]

I would not attempt to keep 5 males of any type of "red jewel"in 50 gal but two pairs with a school of congo tetras or something would be nice. Look into hemichromis Lifalili also a touch smaller and less aggressive IME. Also why do you want all males the genus shows limited dimorphism.

 

[torres]

dont fancy pairs much cuz they will take half tank for them, but the color of them is away nicer.

 

[Congoman]

Yeah if you stick a bunch of m hemichromides together your asking for a bloodbath you'll probably end up with one or two at the end. This isn't always the case but I've been keeping members of the genus for a while now and they get pretty nasty towards the same sex and non receptive females.

 

[torres]

yeah ill get something else to keep with mine
thanks

 

[Congoman]

yeah ill get something else to keep with mine
thanks

No problem if you have some pics of the one you have I'd love to see... I can prob give you an exact ID as far as species also.

 

[torres]

i know its a male, ill post pics when the fish leave his caves.. lol

 

[torres]

there you go, took long but here they are