Female Red Terror + Male Jack Dempsey?

[Serpentine]

Do you find that the more dominant female festae color up brighter, as I've observed with some male cichlids I've had?

Also I wonder if the 3.5 inch red Texas will be OK if I put him in with my 2-inch terrors in a 75 until they are about 4 to 4.5 inches long?

One juvenile female festae and juvenile male red Texas are slated to go into a 90 gallon with lots of driftwood, rocks and caves in the back and the left rest clear for swimming. No other tank mates. Do you think they can live well in that as they mature? A 125 will be difficult to obtain here but we could travel to a neighboring state with larger LFS to pick one up in the future. Would rather not, but....

P.S. - Anyone have a guess on whether the "H. cyanoguttatus" is just that or an H. carpintis? I was ready to say the latter for its meek manners but some of the markings (or lack thereof) on the head make me wonder. It also has a blueish sheen.

P.P.S. - Anyone have a guess as to its gender? It's only a little over 2 inches long. So far I'm leaning toward female but not positive.

 

[duanes]

Yes, I do find, "if" the female festae is dominant, she will seem to color up better.
To me, the Herichtys head profile in your photo looks female, but....if its only a couple inches long..it may be too young to show gender characteristics, and
if the other cichlids in the tank are more dominant, this can sway how a male displays (it may feign female).
Here is a male Herichthys carpintus, note the head profile

now a female, muck less steep, and more torpedo shape

the more prominent black color in the dorsal is also a female trait.

 

[RD.]

One juvenile female festae and juvenile male red Texas are slated to go into a 90 gallon with lots of driftwood, rocks and caves in the back and the left rest clear for swimming. No other tank mates. Do you think they can live well in that as they mature?

No, a 4ft tank will not serve that pair of fish well. Which ever fish becomes most dominant as they mature will most likely beat the tar out of the other, on a regular basis.

Good luck

 

[Serpentine]

Hmm. I see a long road trip to pick up a 6-footer in our future.

Alternatively, we might look into the feasibility of building our own custom tank. That might make more sense.

 

[RD.]

Better odds in a 6ft tank, but even still, no guarantees with some of the larger cichlids.

I once watched a dominant 3 1/2" male L. caeruleus (yellow lab) swim the length of a 6ft tank, and lay a severe (ultimately fatal) beating on a sub dominant male that he had lived with for approx. 2-3 yrs. It basically all boils down to how much each individual fish will tolerate in a confined space. Some learn to get along and make the best of a not always so great situation, others never do.

I love the looks of some of the more natural looking set ups that some hobbyists strive for, but there is absolutely nothing natural about forcing fish to live together in a glass box.

 

[Serpentine]

Yes, I do find, "if" the female festae is dominant, she will seem to color up better.
To me, the Herichtys head profile in your photo looks female, but....if its only a couple inches long..it may be too young to show gender characteristics, and
if the other cichlids in the tank are more dominant, this can sway how a male displays (it may feign female).
Here is a male Herichthys carpintus, note the head profile

now a female, muck less steep, and more torpedo shape

the more prominent black color in the dorsal is also a female trait.

I think now that it's had time to settle in that my H. cyanoguttatus is actually an H. carpintis. And I believe you're right, probably a female.

No, a 4ft tank will not serve that pair of fish well. Which ever fish becomes most dominant as they mature will most likely beat the tar out of the other, on a regular basis.

Good luck

Thank you. This ended up helping more than you know.

We are going to custom build them an appropriately sized tank, since we can't find one locally.

This got us thinking about building another tank... this one for a black Arowana. I have always wanted one. My parents had a silver Arowana when I was a kid and I learned from them how NOT to care for one (crammed into a 100 gallon tank with a bunch of Oscars and a black shark, with no real room to move and his food seized by the faster fish).

Brutus is just a tiny little nub right now but we're constructing him a 400 gallon (8 feet long, 3 feet deep, a little over 2 feet tall). Tank mates will be a royal plecostemus and Red Head Tapajos eartheaters. Despite his very large eventual size I think a red terror or red Texas cichlid would be too aggressive.

If you can't buy the tank that your fish really need... build it!

 

[Predator07]

Why are Green terror more suitable
for a community tank then Red terror ??

 

[Serpentine]

Why are Green terror more suitable
for a community tank then Red terror ??

Because Red Terrors delight in killing their tank mates. Murder and mayhem are their specialties.

I certainly wouldn't want to be a Green Terror trapped in a tank with a Red Terror.

ETA: I have had success with a juvenile Red Texas and jewel cichlids as tank mates with juvenile Red Terrors in a temporary grow-out tank because they are crazy mean. In fact the Red Texas is the meanest of them all. The jewel cichlids are scrappy fighters like convicts. Even so there was a fair degree of carnage as the young ones worked out who was fit for survival and who was food for the others.

Caligula the male Red Texas cichlid paired up with Hela the dominant female Red Terror and they are moving to a 150 of their own. The crazy little jewels will stay in the other tank with a couple of convicts and possibly a mellower female Red Terror. More than likely I'll end up selling the remaining 2 festae.

 

[Serpentine]

I should add that Caligula the Red Texas cichlid, who can be as savage as his namesake--and ruthlessly eliminated all male competition--is remarkably gentle with Hela the Red Terror and vice versa. They get along very, very well. They never come to blows.

I expected them to throw down when Caligula decided he was mature enough to think about breeding and started to build a nest. Hela insisted on helping him with construction. He had very definite opinions about exactly where each grain of gravel should be placed. He would chase her away, do a little courtship dance and then go back to building. At one point he dug up the last plant left in the tank and presented it to her as a gift to eat or play with, presumably as a distraction. I was impressed.

Oh, and everyone was totally right. A Jack Dempsey wouldn't have lasted. Not at all.