Red devil won't eat.

[Gilbert]

I got a 3-4 in. red devil from my lfs. They said he was eating well. He seemed to be in good shape except for his stomach being sunken in. I thought this may have been from underfeeding and neglect. I put him in a fully cycled 55 gal. by himself. Temp 79, ph 7.4, amm. 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20 ppm. All he does is hide in the rocks and won't come out to eat after 3 days. Is this normal? What type of food should I try to coax him out with? All I have now is pellets and flakes. He has no fungus, cloudy eyes, or clamped fins. Thanks.

[Overawed]

Welcome to the Cichlid Forums Gilbert! 8)
He might be stressed out. He might also have parasites in his gills, hard to say unless you do a swab and check it out under the microscope.

Just watch him and make sure he does not lose his swim bladder. You might want to treat him with a mild bath of anti-parasite meds like Quick Cure or something.

I do not know that much about SA's so if I were you I'd wait until someone with more SA exp posts here. Or check out the diagnostic sites posted in the thread below.

[Rudy]

Welcome to the forum.

The only thing that concerns me about your statement is that the place you bought him said he is eating well, however the belly is sunken.

It is normal for a rd to not eat when they are stressed, and sometimes takes a while for them to get used to their surroundings.

If the belly is sunken it can sometimes mean an internal parasite. A lot of the time it won't make them sick for quite some time and they will be seemingly fine, however will start to wither away. I rarely treat my americans with meds for parasites as they are pretty tough. What I would do is pump up the temp to 85 and add 1 tbsp of salt per every five gallons. This should clear it up.

You could always treat him with an internal parasite med like paragon 2 if it seems to be getting worse. Make sure you take the carbon out of your filter before doing so.

Is he in there by himself?

[Overawed]

Ah, OK. I was thinking it would be ok to raise the temp to 85F but I was not sure with Americans.

[Gilbert]

I raised the temp and added the salt. He comes out now to explore his new home but he's still really skittish and still only very slightly interested in food. Is there some type of food that he would more readily take than flakes and pellets?

[Overawed]

Maybe some live brine shrimp would coax him out.

[Gilbert]

I don't have axcess to live brine shrimp. What about ghost shrimp or would they carry parasites and diseases?

[Gilbert]

He's fine now. Eating well and his stomach is already filling out. I ordered some of Marineland's new soft Bio-Blend Cichlid Pellets from BigAlsOnline.Should be here soon. Never did like hard pellets. I' m glad that someone finally started making a soft pellet. Thanks for the help guys.

[Overawed]

glad to hear he's doing good now :)

[Gilbert]

Should I now discontinue the salt and turn the heat down?

[chc]

Yes.

[dmorgan]

My Steveni Taiwan stomach is somewhat concaved. I went back to the LFS and saw other fish in the same tank that looked the same including other species. He eats fine and is never left out, however the fish do eat what I put in within one minute. Just four days ago I added about 20 ghost shrimp and my fish devoured them all including the Steveni. After noticing the Steveni's stomach I now notice a couple other fish's stomach that are flat. Is this some type of parasite?