My red devil is being super weird!

[Jamie Gill]

I’ve had my red devil four two months now, and he is about 5-6 inched long and I’ve had him for two months. He has a huge personality and is super aggressive (he always bites me bad) and was super active swimming in all areas of the tank until now. I’ve tested my water and the nitrates were a little high but ammonia and nitrites were both at 0. But he is acting really weird he was sitting at the bottom of the tank and not eating so I did multiple small water changes to get the nitrates back down. He is eating again and he swims around and has been looking really good until today about five days after what I thought was nitrate poisoning. He started sitting on the bottom again, he is still eating but he is just a bit off he has no physical symptoms at all so I really don’t know what it is? I just want my old Bo back

Can someone please help me out?
Thank you

 

[Jamie Gill]

I’ve had my red devil four two months now, and he is about 5-6 inched long and I’ve had him for two months. He has a huge personality and is super aggressive (he always bites me bad) and was super active swimming in all areas of the tank until now. I’ve tested my water and the nitrates were a little high but ammonia and nitrites were both at 0. But he is acting really weird he was sitting at the bottom of the tank and not eating so I did multiple small water changes to get the nitrates back down. He is eating again and he swims around and has been looking really good until today about five days after what I thought was nitrate poisoning. He started sitting on the bottom again, he is still eating but he is just a bit off he has no physical symptoms at all so I really don’t know what it is? I just want my old Bo back

Can someone please help me out?
Thank you

Didn’t mean to write I’ve had him for two months twice hahaha

 

[Covetous]

If the multiple small water changes helped. Maybe you need to start doing more frequent water changes. How big of a tank is it? Also what’s the water temp at. Could be too hot, multiple small water changes will also lower the temperature. I found if my water gets too hot my larger fish will get very sluggish and sit on the bottom. My Oscars do this a lot in summer, they have an outside tank.

These are just two easy fixes. Post the results of your water tests, what size tank, any tankmates, and temperature. And hopefully we can get to the bottom of it.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Also sometimes switching the diet helps.

 

[mattison187]

Does he have stringy clear poop?

 

[Jamie Gill]

Temperature:25-26degrees Celsius
Tank size:45gallons(getting a bigger tank soon this was just his grow out)
Water tests: ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 5.0
He did have stringy poo but they have gone normal again.
I have been feeding him multiple things like hikari gold pellets and hikari staple pellet frozen krill and blood worms.
He has no tank mates he is too mean I wouldn’t even try.
I have also done bigger 40-50% water changes now too. Cuz before hand I was only doing 25-30%.
Thanks for your replies

 

[Jamie Gill]

Also when I turn all the lights off even my bedroom one, he starts being super active again and chasing me around the tank?

 

[Gourami Swami]

do you have much décor in the tank? floating plants can work wonders for making fish feel comfortable. Cichlids can be moody as well he might be fine. I would keep nitrates low, and plan to upgrade in the next few months.

Stringy poop could mean parasites, or it could mean shedding intestinal layer due to digestive issues, stress, etc.
If the poo looks normal now I wouldn't be too concerned about that unless is becomes white or stringy again

 

[Jamie Gill]

I’ve just got rocks and one anubias that he nests behind, I’ll was definitely planning on upgrading in a few weeks he is just growing so fast! Could his colour fade from being moody? I’m so sad he use to eat from my hand and now he won’t even come to the surface

 

[Cichlids-r-beasts]

I’ve just got rocks and one anubias that he nests behind, I’ll was definitely planning on upgrading in a few weeks he is just growing so fast! Could his colour fade from being moody? I’m so sad he use to eat from my hand and now he won’t even come to the surface

Get generally cichlids colours tend to fade when they’ve got no place to hide and whatnot. Give him some places to hide.