Depressed?

[MrsE88]

Oliver has been acting out of character the past month or so. I’m wondering if he might be depressed.
He occasionally roams the tank, but mostly just sits on the bottom in the middle of the tank.

He also gets stress stripes from time to time.
No parasites visually or showing up on microscope.
Water readings; Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, ph 8.2, Nitrates 10, temp 74F.
I might bump the temp a bit, but I don’t think that will really make a difference.
Tank mates are 4 rainbow fish, 18 giant danios, and one glotetra.
He otherwise acts fine. No flashing and eats the same as always.

Im debating on adding my big female Greenie back in the tank. I just hate that she gets so aggressive and beats on him, but I also hate seeing him mope around:/
My other thought was maybe adding his two sons back in with him. I’m just not sure having a male trio will work out. I think either the smaller male will end up getting beat to death or both young males will just hide all the time.

Any suggestions?

 

[Rocksor]

Maybe he's just overweight. Lack of energy is one a a few signs of being overweight for lots of animals. Add a powerhead of some sort to get him swimming, and it doesn't have to be on all the time.

 

[RD.]

Looking at your fish, specifically his head, reminds me of how my adult male midas acts, and looks, when his tank water is cooled below 75F. IME an increase of 4-5 degrees can make a huge difference in overall behavior. The OP of the thread below also noticed a major change in his fish when he bumped the temps up.

I've had similar experiences with certain Centrals over the years. My adult male midas becomes far less active, goes off his feed, and his nuchal hump shrinks when his water temp drops below 75F. I've had two heaters fail in his tank over the last few years and both times I knew by his change in behaviour, and overall appearance. One winter I gave him an extended cooling off period, and I had the same results. He definitely prefers 77-78F over 72-73F.

 

[MrsE88]

Maybe he's just overweight. Lack of energy is one a a few signs of being overweight for lots of animals. Add a powerhead of some sort to get him swimming, and it doesn't have to be on all the time.

A power head sounds like a good idea. Maybe have the flow directed to the bottom of the tank just during the day? That way he can sleep without being pushed around at night.
I can’t see it being overweight. I only feed once a day 4-5x a week since all the tanks are kept cooler during the winter months. Does he look fat?

 

[MrsE88]

Looking at your fish, specifically his head, reminds me of how my adult male midas acts, and looks, when his tank water is cooled below 75F. IME an increase of 4-5 degrees can make a huge difference in overall behavior. The OP of the thread below also noticed a major change in his fish when he bumped the temps up.

I’ll bump the temp, maybe even put the heater up in the tank instead of in the sump. See if that helps.
His head has gone down since the girls were removed. Do you think it might bulk up with the increased temp?

 

[Rocksor]

My green terror at 4 years of age was never that lethargic. It also didn't look as big. He was fed 3 x a week at most and kept at 75F during winter time. He was constantly swimming around even at that temperature. The only time at the bottom was in the evening around 6pm.

 

[RD.]

Do you think it might bulk up with the increased temp?

Yes. Increased temps are commonly used by flowerhorn keepers to keep the fish acting more aggressive, as nuchal hump size is generally caused by gonadal swings. Having females present causes same, but with Amphilophus so does keeping multiple males together. I posted a thread on nuchal humps in Amphilophus several yrs ago and cited a paper by George Barlow.

Good luck, I hope that he comes out of his funk.

 

[MrsE88]

My green terror at 4 years of age was never that lethargic. It also didn't look as big. He was fed 3 x a week at most and kept at 75F during winter time. He was constantly swimming around even at that temperature. The only time at the bottom was in the evening around 6pm.

Oh, maybe I am over feeding then. I fed him 2-3x a day the first year and half so cutting back to 4-5x a week seemed like a big cut in feeding.
This is the first time he’s ever been so lazy. But he’s also never spent this much time alone without any females around either. I just assumed that being the only difference he’s had to his living situation must be the reason for this behavior change.

 

[MrsE88]

Yes. Increased temps are commonly used by flowerhorn keepers to keep the fish acting more aggressive, as nuchal hump size is generally caused by gonadal swings. Having females present causes same, but with Amphilophus so does keeping multiple males together. I posted a thread on nuchal humps in Amphilophus several yrs ago and cited a paper by George Barlow.

Good luck, I hope that he comes out of his funk.

Thanks, I hope he does too!

 

[Rocksor]

Oh, maybe I am over feeding then. I fed him 2-3x a day the first year and half so cutting back to 4-5x a week seemed like a big cut in feeding.
This is the first time he’s ever been so lazy. But he’s also never spent this much time alone without any females around either. I just assumed that being the only difference he’s had to his living situation must be the reason for this behavior change.

My green terror was fed 1 feeding everyday for first 12-18 months. Then it was down to 3x a week around the 2nd year. The long poo was indicative to me that the feeding of this species was different from say an oscar which produce short fat poo.