The red devil is an extraordinary fish found in Central America. The name is very appropriate for it (actually 3 different species). My devil, Satan, was my most interesting and favorite fish. He looked like the fish above, with a lesser hump on the head. Most information that I know of this species comes from my time studying Satan.
During my first summer as a hobbyist, my brother and I invested in a 20 gallon tank with the works. We decided to put 6 fish in it: red devil, green terror, Jack Dempsey, Texas cichlid, Jewel, and Pleco (algae eater). We decided that we should get the devil and terror early and raise them before we got the actual tank. He got Satan, and I got Saddam, the terror (which I later found out to be a different central than advertised). Well, Saddam died within days, so Satan was the lone precursor to the tank. We later went to buy Cousin Ruben (Texas), Jewel (Jewel, duh), Saddam II (misnamed terror), and the dempsey and pleco.
Well, to skip over time, Satan killed them all by his lonesome, plus one more fish that I bought later. Well, the JD might have been considered a community kill, but still. We never actually saw him kill the others, but it was very apparent it was him as he outgrew all the others in size and dominance. He kind of killed Saddam twice, as he outright killed him and almost killed him another time.
Well, he grew to be 8-9" long. He established habits for himself when he became a hermit. I had a rock ledge in one corner for others to hide in. However, he took this over as his home. In fact, he loved this place. It was actually plastic (that looked like rocks) suction cupped to the wall. He only came out at night from this spot. Every once in a while, he would accidently knock the ledge down. He'd always try to hide underneath this; when he did this, my parents would always think that he was dead. Once, he even picked it up with his mouth, and tried to put it back on the wall. This seems like an exaggeration, but its not at all!
Since he could not live with company, that meant no plecos. No plecos means a haven for algae. I had to scrape it out quite a bit.
Satan would often watch what was happening outside of the tank (not every fish does something like this). We almost trained him to follow our fingers when we ran them across the tank walls.
Life with Satan became routine for almost 2 years like this. Then, under the "supervision" of my parents, he developed a fungal infection. I came home from college and found this out; needless to say, I was less than pleased. I did my best to help, but it got worse after I left again. He died a week later, full of mucus and resembling anything but a fish.
The following pictures are not my own, but are very representative of what Satan looked like throughout various stage.
Young Satan
The form (but not color) of a developing Satan.
Full grown Satan, with appropriate color.
Satan: 8/99-2/01
