Red Devil acting strange

[Wallcritter]

We have two red devils and one is now hovering at the top of the tank. This just started yesterday. I have noticed he is not really eating. Any suggestions or advice what to do, or watch for.

[Maine_Fish]

Originally Posted by Wallcritter We have two red devils and one is now hovering at the top of the tank. This just started yesterday. I have noticed he is not really eating. Any suggestions or advice what to do, or watch for.

Some more information about your tank might help...

Can you tell us about your tank setup? How big is it? What are you running for filtration? How long has it been running? How big are the red devils? How long have you had them? What and how often are you feeding them? Water temp? Water parameters (pH, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, etc.)?

[Wallcritter]

75 gal running a Marineland Penguin BIO-Wheel 400, temp is 76. He is 2.5 inches and we have had him 2 months. We feed brine shrimp and blood worms and shrimp.
Nitrates -NO2 is 5 ppm
NO3 is 3 ppm
I performed both regular and high
PH 7.6 with high range 7.8
Ammonia is 6ppm (which is high from what I have read)

There are 2 blue Africans and 2 clown knifes along with another red in the tank. So far they get along fine, but we are going to separate them soon, putting the reds in a 55 gal, the blues in a 29 gal and leaving the clowns in the 75.

Hope this helps.

[Maine_Fish]

Originally Posted by Wallcritter 75 gal running a Marineland Penguin BIO-Wheel 400, temp is 76. He is 2.5 inches and we have had him 2 months. We feed brine shrimp and blood worms and shrimp. Nitrates -NO2 is 5 ppm NO3 is 3 ppm I performed both regular and high PH 7.6 with high range 7.8 Ammonia is 6ppm (which is high from what I have read) There are 2 blue Africans and 2 clown knifes along with another red in the tank. So far they get along fine, but we are going to separate them soon, putting the reds in a 55 gal, the blues in a 29 gal and leaving the clowns in the 75. Hope this helps.

Ammonia at 6 ppm is not good. The only acceptable ammonia level in an aquarium is 0.

It's possible your red devil is having a negative reaction to the high ammonia levels...but I can't say for sure. If one of my established tanks was at 6 ppm, I'd start doing daily water changes of at least 50% until those levels got down and stayed down.

The high ammonia can be a result of several things. It could be that you're overfeeding. It could be that your tank is not fully cycled yet. I'd also point out that your filtration could use some work. Your filter is rated with a maximum flow rate of 400 gph (much lower than that in reality). Unless your fish are not tolerant of high water movement, I'd recommend aiming for a turnover rate of at least 10x per hour...in your case, 750 gallons per hour. When I was running a 75 gallon tank, I used 2 Aquaclear 110's (rated at 500 gph each), and two sponge filters.

There's some folks here with much more knowledge and experience than me. I'd be interested to see what they have to say.

Good luck!

[Wallcritter]

Thank you for your advice. The first thing I need to work on is getting the Ammonia level down. Then we will look at the filtration.