# Red Devil acting weird



## pfarina0503 (Sep 16, 2014)

Hi and thanks for reading my post. My Red Devil Cichlid "Bruce" has been acting strange. I have had him for about 2 years now. He is about 9 inches long. 5 days ago before I left for a weekend trip, I added water to my my 55g tank (due to evaporation). I guess because I was in such a rush to leave, I overfilled the tank to where the filter was not creating any bubbles or circulation and did not realize it. So, I left for the weekend, returning 2 days ago to find Bruce ghastly white (not his normal beautiful orange color) and gasping for air at the top of the tank. He would gasp for air and then fall to the bottom of the tank and lay against his favorite rock with his belly resting on the bottom of the tank floor. I immediately removed water to allow for circulation. I noticed his tank was very dirty as well, so I used a suction vac to remove some of the decomposing matter and did an overall 30% water change. I also added some declorinator and salt. He seemed to get a bit better by the next day (yesterday). His color came back but he was acting lethargic and just not like himself. After doing some online research I realized that I was not doing nearly enough water changes for Bruce. I thought my nitrate levels may be high so I did another 50% water change (approx. 24 hours after the 30% water change) and added more declorinator and salt. After that, Bruce swam to the corner of the tank that he normally does not hang out in and just sat there with his nose pointing down towards the ground. I noticed he would almost kind of twitch every few seconds. After a couple of hours, he started to come out of the corner, but only for a minute and then he would go right back to the corner with his nose facing down. It has been almost another 24 hours and he is still acting this way. I feel like I have done everything I can. Please help!  Thanks so much in advance!


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Welcome to C-F and sorry to hear your troubles...

Do you have a test kit to check ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? I'm guessing, as you have stated, that your nitrate levels were very high. A tank level that is low due to evaporation would indicate so.

Having an accurate test kit is key. Your attempt to get circulation improved the devil, but the big water change seemed to worsen his condition. It is possible that the big change in nitrate levels with the water change shocked your fish. It's also possible that the substrate vacuuming stirred up a lot of waste and caused a mini cycle. Using a dechlorinator like Seachem Prime will aid during this process until your tank is back on track. But that is only a guess without knowing water parameters.

Until you can test the water keep the tank well aerated, do not feed and monitor the devil's behavior closely.


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