One of the great things about Texas is the amazing diversity of fish that we have, but when I set the hook on an orange fish in Lake Granbury I was really surprised when I landed the fish. I was fishing with a fly rod at approximately 9 p.m., when I saw the fish swimming along the bank. I had seen an orange fish about a month earlier swimming in the same area, and my guess is that this is the same fish. I cast to the fish with my carp slayer fly and the fish hit the fly immediately. At first I thought it might be an orange colored blue or Nile tilapia, but the fish had more than 3 anal spines, eliminating those tilapia as a possibility. My wife, Karen, helped me with the fish and we got pictures of the fish on my IGFA certified scales (8.7 ounces), pictures on a measuring board (8.25 inches), and pictures of me with the fish and my fly rod.

Since the fish is a non-native, potentially invasive species, I put the fish in a bucket and removed it from the lake. I put the fish in a small aquarium at my house. After some extensive research and lots of coordination with multiple organizations, the fish was determined to be a red devil cichlid (Amphilophus genus). It may be one of the only fish of this genus ever caught in the state.

My wife fell in love with the fish and named him Cheeto, so after some extensive garage sale shopping we ended up with a new home for him. As I am typing this, Cheeto is in the process of rearranging the aquarium.

beautiful,...!!!!

Neat looking fish and a nice new home for it.

Awesome fish. I had a Red Devil in an aquarium for several years. Very entertaining fish...he was constantly rearranging the gravels. I had some taller decorations in the tank that I had to remove because he would constantly remove the gravel around the bases which caused the decorations to tip over or float. Congrats on the cool catch!

I would be happy to hear any tips that you have. Cheeto is really enjoying digging up everything in the aquarium Really fun to watch.

First off congrats on a cool catch & moving it to a nice home! Does it feed on snails/mollusks is why it digs around the bottom? Or is it a female that must constantly rearrange the furniture? Pretty fish.

Very nice.

Red devil cichlids are mainly carnivores, but eat a variety of foods. The digging is probably more related to breeding characteristics, but I’m just guessing.

It was a very low maintenance fish, so I didn't really have to do anything special tank-wise to keep it happy/healthy. He was an aggressive son-of-a-gun, so smaller fish likely wont be tolerated. Similar sized Oscars and Jack Dempseys should do fine if you are considering adding some buddies for it.

As far as the digging goes, I am not entirely sure...it may have something to do with breeding or it may simply be they like having a burrow to rest in. My fish was a male...had the large hump on its forehead similar to the one in this photo (not my fish). I would guess yours is female. Maybe males and females share nest building duties? IDK?



Oh...he was a pill bug eating machine! As were my Oscars. They can suck a pill bug off the surface a solid inch below them! LOL

WOW, you just never know what may be out there. Would be interesting to know Cheeto’s story if it had been in the lake very long and what larger predator encounters that it survived.

Cheeto sure is pretty 😍!

I was just trying to come up with something to match those pretty Rios you catch.

Nice catch!

Very cool