Stressed Trimac

[Roger Mcfish]

Got up to see my male twitching and shaking. He keeps vigorously shaking his head and no clue why. I thought maybe one of the heaters were causing it with possible shocks and both are working properly.
Any ideas on why he's doing this?

Ammonia and nitrite 0
Nitrates 5ppm
Temp 77 degrees
pH 7.6
TDS 158ppm

 

[Roger Mcfish]

Added detail. Was thinking he was getting aggressive to his reflection possibly but he'll twitch even facing me or the other way.
This has me worried. He's a big boy for only being 7 months old, little over 8 inches.

 

[Roger Mcfish]

As you can see in the video, the twitching and hard breathing.
Watch his gills.

 

[duanes]

Looks like a display of alpha dominance at onset of maturity to me.

 

[danotaylor]

Looks like a display of alpha dominance at onset of maturity to me.

+1
Super healthy looking stud
Gill flaring is a behavior that makes them look bigger to opposition. When doing it to the front of the tank he’s tryna be the boss of you, and tell ya “you ain’t so bad” (use Rocky Balboa accent) He’s breathing heavier cause he’s workin hard to show he’s the man

 

[Cichlids-r-beasts]

He’s just putting on his big boy pants now. He’s active, his colors aren’t washed and he isn’t breathing heavy so I think you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Roger Mcfish]

Looks like a display of alpha dominance at onset of maturity to me.

Hmm. Even with the twitching in the corner to himself and heavy breathing?

 

[Roger Mcfish]

He’s just putting on his big boy pants now. He’s active, his colors aren’t washed and he isn’t breathing heavy so I think you have nothing to worry about.

He had me worried. I've never seen him tweak out
For the colors, the video doesn't do justice but his stress bars were starting to show.

 

[Roger Mcfish]

+1
Super healthy looking stud
Gill flaring is a behavior that makes them look bigger to opposition. When doing it to the front of the tank he’s tryna be the boss of you, and tell ya “you ain’t so bad” (use Rocky Balboa accent) He’s breathing heavier cause he’s workin hard to show he’s the man

Thank you for the compliment. He caught me off guard and I was thinking the worse! Lol

Looked like he was slamming himself into the substrate.

 

[Roger Mcfish]

So he's pretty much coming out of his teenage stage and becoming the "man".

Thank you for the replies. I was really thinking the worse and thought he was sick or something.