red devil agressiveness

R

reddevilcichlid

AC Members
Jul 4, 2007
10
0
0
Hello all. well I have sort of a delima here. i have a 5-6 inch male red devil but he is very shy, won't even come to the top of the tank when I'm feeding him. there are several places in the 55 gallon tank i have him alone in to hide. Is there anything that i can do to make him less shy and more agressive? taking his hiding spots ect.?????


Thanks alot for any help.
 
rosy reds are normally what i feed him. He is agressive twoards other fish but usually hides when he sees me? will this go away with age? he is about 5-6 inches and I've had him for about three months. Thanks for any help. BTW I've been looking for another large male red devil for my other tank if anyone knows where i could find one.
 
How long have you had him? He may need time to adjust to you, eventually though he'll figure otu that your his food source.

One thing though, are your water parameters in good shape, If you have ammonia or nitrites in the tank it could stress him and make him skittish.
 
reddevilcichlid said:
rosy reds are normally what i feed him. He is agressive twoards other fish but usually hides when he sees me? will this go away with age? he is about 5-6 inches and I've had him for about three months. Thanks for any help. BTW I've been looking for another large male red devil for my other tank if anyone knows where i could find one.
Click to expand...

rosy reds shouldn't make up for any significant portion of their diet though. I would use a quality pellet food and a variety of frozen (or live) foods.
 
I feed him rosy reds, ghost shrimp, and Hikari cichlid gold but he will not come to the top of the tank to eat it. I've had him for a little over three months. I change my water once a month and clean/change my filter weekly. does agression usually come with age? should i take his hiding spots???
 
Alot of fish are like this, and stay like this. Others grow out of it. It could be that he sees you as an active aggressor and hides from you. It may be the way you approach the tank, if you approach a tank in a fast manner, most fish see you as a predator and hide.

I train my Cichlids, by lightly clicking/tapping on the glass before each feeding. This way they reallize it's feeding time, they associate the clicking/tapping noise with food. Thus they get use to me being near the tank and don't hide as much.
 
taking away the hiding spots would be good for you because you'd get to see the fish,. but bad for the fish because he would be stressed and scared all the time. as backwards as it may seem, your fish might need MORE hiding spaces put into the tank. when they *know* they have a good place or three in which to hide, fish are more willing to come out into the open. they know they can escape to a dark hole any time. without that reassurance of security, they feel scared more often than not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom