Traumatised red devil?

[Gren]

I got my first fish about a week ago from a friend of mine, he was getting out of breeding red devils and gave me a 55 gallon tank and a 6 inch red devil, for the first couple of days he was constantly atacking his reflection in the glass swiming all over the tank and genraly looking like a normal fish, yesterday my little brother came over and put a seethrew orange ruler the same color as the fish, the fish was terrified, and would swim over to the other end of the tank as quick as it could, my brother kept this up for maby 20 minits untill the fish hid in his castle, since then he has come out of his castle for 30 seconds to eat last night and then went right back in and hasn't come out at all today, basicaly i have two questions, 1) will my fish get over his terror of people, and 2) why would a fish freak out after seeing a ruler outside of his tank?

 

[thecichlidaddict]

I'm not sure why the ruler had such an impact, perhaps it is the bold strangeness of the item to the fish, but the why is not important. If you see your brother harassing your fish, put a stop to it--he should not have been allowed 2 minutes of that nonesense.

The good news is that your fish will recover and become friendly again. Don't disrupt anything in the tank, spend lots of time near the tank (observing and feeding) and keep up the water changes for optimum cleanliness, while dealing with the lowered immune system that accompanies stress. And for the fishes sake, keep your brother out of there!

 

[Vip]

and become friendly again.

cant see that happening lol

 

[Ben]

lol Vip,

i wonder why the fish was scared of the ruler, my fish arnt even scared of a black ghost

 

[Gren]

Yeah I think he might be lonely now because he's by himself in a 55 gallon tank, the fish had come from a 200 galon tank with about 45 red devils that were around 3-6 inches and one that was about 8 inches, my fish ate first and ruled that tank, he didn't rule by hidding, he ate first and ate often by bullying the other fish, now he dosn't have anybody to pick on. I checked with the LFS and the recomended getting 1 or 2 either orange pike, jack dempsy or a jaguare. Is a 55 gallon enough room to add 2 more fish too. before the tank filter setup came to me it had two large(8 to 10 inch) devils in it and they seemed fine, I'd like to get the dempsy, my gf wants to get the pike, and while the lfs says all 3 would get along fine and have enough room i'd like an opinion of people who won't be making more money the more fish i get.

 

[Vip]

none for a 55g dude, if you want to upgrade to a 125g you could go for a trimac or a jaguar, i have a red devil (not pure devil though) trimac and jag all in the same tank and they get along fine.

 

[Gren]

is there any rule of thumb as to how many galons you need based on how many fish you had, i remember when my mom had a bunch of neons it was one inch of fish per gallon of tank but i'm thinking cichlids need a bit more room than a neon

 

[thecichlidaddict]

I think Vip is on the right track, if you want to add more fish you would need 100 gallons or more, these fish are big, aggressive, and need lots of room. There is no rule of thumb, just common sense. There is absolutely no room for two 12" fish in a 55 gallon, it's even a bit of a squeeze for one.

 

[Gren]

thanks thats why i was checking with you guys rather than the fish store

 

[Gren]

i've been talking to my breeder friend and he has a 90 gallon that he is getting rid of i know it's not 125 but would 90 be enough for a red devil and a dempsy?