help and opinion needed

Hi!

i need help to identify the fish in the picture, my friend's family keep it in that tank, and i feel the urge to take it place it my 60l tank, i know my tank probably toooooo small for this fish, but i just feel bad for the fish, at least i could provide food and cleaner water than that. from what i see it looks like some kind of cichlid ? my friend doesnt know the species (she doesnt know anything about fish), when i got better photo i'll post it here.

and by the way, there's no way fish store would take it, and my friends wouldnt take a fish that size.

so should i take it or leave it ?

really, there's no good option and im really conflicted about this

I'm, can we have a better pictures, sorry but I can't see anything

That's rough. Kinda looks like a large red devil cichlid. But the pic isn't great and the color is probably all washed out from the poor water quality and living conditions. Looks like possibly the belly is sunken in too. I feel bad for it!!! But the red devil is just a shot in the dark guess. Does look cichlid to me.

Sorry this is the newest photo i got, she said she couldnt get a clear photo from the front since the water is too dirty

Take it imho. Is their tank bigger than yours?
At least cleaner water would make its life better even if your tanks a bit smaller, then you could look to rehome it with someone with the correct tank size. I think you may need to take most of its water as well then change that gradually.
Others on here would be better placed to advise than me though.

ClownLurch said:

Take it imho. Is their tank bigger than yours?
At least cleaner water would make its life better even if your tanks a bit smaller, then you could look to rehome it with someone with the correct tank size. I think you may need to take most of its water as well then change that gradually.
Others on here would be better placed to advise than me though.

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My tank is definitely bigger, but still too small for a fish that size, Im still trying to convince her to give her fish to me or at least to someone with bigger tank

How big is the beast? That looks like a pretty serious abrasion in front of the dorsal fin.

Oscar 907 said:

That's rough. Kinda looks like a large red devil cichlid. But the pic isn't great and the color is probably all washed out from the poor water quality and living conditions. Looks like possibly the belly is sunken in too. I feel bad for it!!! But the red devil is just a shot in the dark guess. Does look cichlid to me.

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I would agree, could also be a red terror?

I would take it as soon as possible, regardless of what it is. It must be miserable in the tank it's in now. If you can get it into clean water, it would be easier to identify it too.

WhistlingBadger said:

How big is the beast? That looks like a pretty serious abrasion in front of the dorsal fin.

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It looks like the length of the fish is 1/4 or at most 1/3 length of the tank, and tank like that usually 30cm-40cm long, so my guess between 8cm-12cm.

FishFinatic77 said:

I would take it as soon as possible, regardless of what it is. It must be miserable in the tank it's in now. If you can get it into clean water, it would be easier to identify it too.

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Yeah, i feel the same way too, the problem is how to convince her to give away her fish, or precisely her family's fish, I'll let you guys know if she let me take it

So, just to sort of play devil's advocate: I'm all for rescuing a fellow living thing in need, but at the same time, I almost always have regretted taking someone else's problem and making it my own. If you don't really want this fish, and if you are unable to take care of it adequately, you might be well advised to walk away. You are under no obligation to undo someone else's bad decision.

WhistlingBadger said:

So, just to sort of play devil's advocate: I'm all for rescuing a fellow living thing in need, but at the same time, I almost always have regretted taking someone else's problem and making it my own. If you don't really want this fish, and if you are unable to take care of it adequately, you might be well advised to walk away. You are under no obligation to undo someone else's bad decision.

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Yeah I know that, my brother in law left 1 of his kois for me to take care, and I really hate it (not the fish, but the way he causally give his koi to me) I mean I don't even have a pond. But this time, it's different, I really feel bad about that fish. But first let see what that fish is, if it's turned out to be goldfish or koi, I could quarantine it in my tank and then give it to my boss (he have many koi ponds). I'm pretty sure it is some kind of cichlid, but we'll see when I could get a closer look.

BoomerXIV said:

Yeah I know that, my brother in law left 1 of his kois for me to take care, and I really hate it (not the fish, but the way he causally give his koi to me) I mean I don't even have a pond. But this time, it's different, I really feel bad about that fish. But first let see what that fish is, if it's turned out to be goldfish or koi, I could quarantine it in my tank and then give it to my boss (he have many koi ponds). I'm pretty sure it is some kind of cichlid, but we'll see when I could get a closer look.

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Well between the pics you have I am confident its definitely a cichlid. Red terror or red devil something like that. I will warn I have seen something like that type of injury in some albino corry cats. For them it turned out to be a flesh eating bacteria I was unable to control. I had worked it's way under their scales and literally ate them alive. It was horrible!! Tried every thing I could to stop it. But it swept though about half my tank. That's as I was pulling fish with symptoms out and putting them all in QT. Seemed every time I looked back in the main tank I seen more. Also it transferred to another tank simply by a net careless set on top the uninfected tank. And the net dripped into that tank causing another contaminated tank. After it seems to run its course it did go away never to be seen in that tank again. But I tried about 4 meds and none stopped any fish from falling to it if infected. As soon as I seen your second pic it definitely made me shiver a little remembering that. There could be a ton of other reasons for the injury. I didn't happen to see any kind of decorations in the tank. So my first thought was some sort of bacterial infection. Considering the water quality. I know were I live I could probably come up with a 55 gal pretty cheap and pretty quickly if needed. Not sure your situation but if you thought that was possible for you, I would, and have lol. Good luck my friend with whichever you choose.