Red Devil Egg laying tube problem
Old Red Devil Female Possibly Egg Bound    1/4/11
Hi. I Have a 11 year old female red devil named Angel. She is in a 90-gal tank alone. For the last few years she has laid eggs every other month. I noticed that her egg laying tube was out about a month ago and she hadn't been eating. She still won't eat, and the tube is still out and appears slightly larger in size. I had my water tested at the local fish store and they told me it was "dirty". All other levels were "normal". They recommended I change 25% water and wait 48hours to change the another 25% water. Also, I was told to replace the filters since I hadn't done so in around 9 months. Tonight I replaced the filters and also did a gravel vac with a 25% water change. Many debris polluted the water when I switched the old filter for a new one. My red devil is now swimming more labored.
She rubbed sideways on a piece of wood in her tank. I fear I may have just made it worse. She is still aggressive when I approach the tank and flares her gills; this is what she usually does during egg laying time.
She hasn't moved any of her rocks around in at least a month though. Her orange is fading. I was feeding her Cichlid pellets a few times a day. I have an emperor filter, a fan, and an air wand. The temp is at 78-80 degrees F. What can I do for her? We all love her very much and want her to live.
< Do a 50% water change, vacuum the gravel and clean the filters. Check the water quality for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. The ammonia and nitrites should be zero. The nitrates should be under 20 ppm but the lower the better. The term "dirty" means nothing. I would recommend that you get these test kits and learn to test the water yourself. Once the water is clean try feeding a medicated food with Metronidazole in it. It can usually be found online if your local store does not carry it. If your fish is not eating then treat the water with Metronidazole and Nitrofuranace for internal infections. Your fish is old and the key to a complete recovery is an early treatment.-Chuck>

Red Devil Laying Eggs, solo...   -4/7/10
Hi Crew!
<Hello,>
We have a 175 gallon tank with 2 Red Devils (one adult one baby), 3 Oscars (one adult, two babies), a Jack Dempsey, a Firemouth and 2 Plecos, we had 3 XL Pacus that we just rehomed. Since the Pacus left our adult Red Devil, which we had thought was a male, but it turns out is a female because she just laid eggs.
<I see.>
We believe that the baby Red Devil is a female also. So my question is, can a Red Devil breed with an Oscar and be successful?
<Very unlikely.>
I only ask this because she is only allowing our adult Oscar around the eggs. Any help would be great. Thanks! -Renae
<Female cichlids will sometimes lay eggs without males. Male cichlids can fertilise eggs even when comparatively small. Infertile and unfertilised eggs will quickly turn white, usually within 24 hours. Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Red Devil Laying Eggs  4/7/10
Thanks for your help. I didn't think they could breed together just wanted to make sure. So it has been at least 48 hours since she laid the eggs and they are still there and are a yellowish color, what does that mean? Thanks again!
<Healthy eggs usually stay clear. Eggs that haven't been fertilised usually go cloudy, and within a few days fungal threads should be obvious. In any event, the best thing to do is to remove the eggs and wash them down the
drain. If let to rot, they're just another source of ammonia. Cheers, Neale.>

Female Red Devil laid eggs -- 04/03/10
My boyfriend and I purchased a baby red devil she is about 6 months old now and has laid eggs.
<Wow, precocious>
Is it too late for us to add a male for her to partner with?
<Can be difficult to get the cichlid species that are called Red Devils to "pair up" when they are adults... but can be done... with a large enough system, screening each to a side, carefully introducing them...>
since she has been in the tank by herself its a 100 gal tank. and how long will it take for her to lay eggs again?
<Can, could be in two-three weeks>
we are new to red devils and tried to go to our local pet store to ask questions, the gentleman just said "Red devils are a no no" and seemed like they were the worst fist in the world. Can you please provide some information to help us mate her and what fish would be best to mate her with.
<Please read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/reddevreprof.htm
and the linked files above; and search (the tool linked on the left shared border) re reproductive behaviour of central American Cichlids on WWM. Bob Fenner>

Breeding Red Devils hi I was wondering if you would be kind enough to help me. < will try, Don here.> I have one 80 gallon tank with 5 red devils in there. one male 8 inches and the rest are 4 inches I'm not sure there sex but I would like to breed them can you tell me how I should do this. also even more important I have purchased a male and female blue hap Ahli which I was told have and would breed. can you give me any tips or advice on how I can get them to breed. any tips at all would really help especially for the haps. (ex, feeding, food, water, tank set up,) etc. thanks again love your site First let me say that these two fish require very different water conditions. The Devils need soft water with a pH around 7. The Haps are African and live in very hard water with a pH of 8 to 8.5. I would not suggest you mix them in a single tank. The Devils are best sexed by fin shape. Males will tend to have more pointed fins, the females more rounded. With 5 in one tank you may see them pair off. If two start to take over one area of the tank, that's your pair. You should remove the others as they will become very aggressive while breeding. Feed rich, meaty foods to condition the female. Frozen Blood worms, small garden worms and such are good conditioning foods for most Cichlids. Stay away from feeder fish unless you can QT them to unsure health. The Haps are mouth breeders. Conditioning for the female is even more important as she will not eat while holding the eggs. Good luck with them. Don

Red Devil Sex(ual Dimorphism) I have purchased a Red Devil. How do I know if it is Male Of Female? Angie < Males generally are larger with longer fins. Big males sometimes get humps on their foreheads.-Chuck>

Breeding Red Devils That's great to know.  I had 3 Rosey barbs in with them and one came up with his head missing. So I remove the other two.  Right now I have Yellow labs, red zebras, ob peacocks, and moorii fry's.  That's about 150 fry's. I'm also hoping that my Frontosas will be spawning soon. Their just about the right size now. I have had a red devil for about two years and thought I would get a male and see if I could get them to breed.  So I got a juv red devil thinking that he would never be dominate to her since he grew up with her.  But I was wrong.  I just recently had to put a divider into the tank because he was always chasing her into her castle. And every time she laid eggs she does it inside her castle, that he is never aloud in.  I was thinking that the next time she got ready to laid eggs again. That I would remove her castle so that would only leave the palm tree to lay on. And after she laid them I would move the palm to the males side and see if he would fertilize them and then move them back.  Got any thoughts on this?   < If the tank divider is porous and water can move to either side then leave the castle in there and the male should be able to fertilize the eggs from the other side of the divider. Many cichlid breeders use this technique so that the males will not kill the females. They lay so many eggs that even if only half get fertilized that this still leaves you with over a 1,000 fry.-Chuck> Red Devil Cichlid Without A Mate  12/26/05 Hello, Great Site! < Thanks, We like it too.> I have a solitary female Red Devil in a 80 gallon tank. She laid a LOT of eggs on her black pipe (her cave). I am curious if laying eggs without a mate present is normal behavior?   Will the eggs just sit there forever? Will they eventually come off and get filtered out? She's incredibly aggressive right now, and I'm concerned about how she will be when her eggs don't hatch. < In 24 hrs or less the eggs will fungus or die. They will decompose and be picked up in the filter. Females in good shape will do this even without a male present. After the eggs are gone she will calm down until she does it again. maybe in two weeks.-Chuck>

Breeding Red Devil Cichlids   6/3/06 Hi Bob, I have a large female red devil who lays eggs often.  None of the eggs have hatched yet.  She had paired up with a Pacu at first.  We replaced the Pacu with a male red devil.  She stopped laying and tried to kill the male.  We moved him out and it took about three months and she has started laying again.  This time she has paired up with a Jack Dempsey.  They killed a smaller Jack that was in the tank with them.  We moved the male devil back in and are wondering how to tell if the eggs are going to be viable or not.  They started out almost clear and some have turned opaque white???? How can we increase the chance of actually having babies? Aurelia <Ideally you would want to pick six small red devils and let them grow up together. This almost always will give you a compatible pair. It is much more difficult to pair up adult fish. The problem here is the female already has a territory established and the male is an intruder. he has not been recognized yet as a potential mate. Clear eggs are good and white eggs are dead or unfertilized. Try placing both fish in the same tank with a divider in between.  As long as they can still see each other they can spawn and fertilize a good portion of the eggs. You will probably have to make your own divider out of plastic egg crate type of lighting panels.-Chuck>

Red devil breeding   2/6/07 I have a male and female red devil.  Their eggs hatched about 1 1/2 weeks ago but she laid more about 3 days ago and now I can't find any of their babies from the first batch, I think they killed them.   <Happens> Why would they have so many babies, and why would they kill them? <Mmm, survival value... many young lost in the wild... and an abundance of young (as with our species) in propitious circumstances... And "stress", adaptive behavior from being in small confines in captivity. Bob Fenner>

Help/red devil cichlids. Female Cichlids Spawning Without Males   8/26/07 Sorry to bother you but I have a young I think female red devil and a 4 year old. I thought it was a male red devil midas mix. I have seen our (male) making a nest a day ago but has nothing to do with the female. Now I have eggs and the female is in the corner. Is it possible that I have 2 females? Who makes the nest, mom or dad? Is it possible that he might be a male and she laid eggs but he chased her away? He is protecting the eggs. Great, how do I tell if they are good or not?? Should I remove the algae eaters from the tank? Jamie < You have two females and one has laid eggs. Usually the eggs are not fertile and die within a day. Very rarely the female may have both sex organs and is able to fertilize the eggs. Only heard of it twice.-Chuck>

Red Devil Fry Eat The Scales off the Female Parent... 12/20/07 Hello Guys... <Howdy> My Red Devils recently had a successful batch of fry. The fry are now about 1 month old, and are growing at a good pace. I just recently separated the 2 parents, by putting the crate divider back in (he was getting overly aggressive). <Good technique> The fry swim freely to either side. She had so many, I took alot <No such word> of the fry out and moved them to a separate tank (they are doing great). There are still quite a few fry in the tank wit the parents.. <Good> My question is: Is it normal for the fry to eat the scales off of the female down to the "white meat" it appears to be getting infected. <No... not normal, or healthy> I know the parents produce a mucus for the fry to eat.. "should they still be eating the mucus at the one month mark". Do I need to remove all the fry? <I would, yes> I feed the fry good also.. But they still are constantly peeking at the female heavily. I don't want the Female to become sick. I would appreciate any advice thanks KD <Move the young... start looking for customers... stores that will buy, give you good credit for them. Bob Fenner>