Flowerhorn Not himself

[mshill90]

I have a male FH about 5"- He has been aggressive since I got him a few months back- He will come out of the water to bite you, bang on the glass, attack the siphon hose..

I feed him NLS- but I noticed that it just makes a horrible mess with the sandy substrate- so during a water change I used the siphon hose to take out all of the substrate. He didn't root in it anyways.

I also took out the small "No Fishing" sign in the corner of the tank, and I refilled the tank, primed it, and all was a go.

This was a week ago..

He is now very passive, and I can actually put my hand in the tank and grab him. He won't eat anything I try to feed him, and he will try to play dead and lay on his side if I try to do anything on the tank.

But, when I go down there, he's swimming around like he's fine.

Then today I put a suction cup thermometer in the tank, and he got PISSED! Flaring his gills, shaking his head, biting the glass...

Then, back to being passive.

This is not normal for him... I'm a little lost.

 

[RD.]

Removing the substrate & some of the decor has most likely stressed the fish out. Perhaps using a mirror on this fish will bring him back to his former self.