The last few days my red devil ( 7 inches) goes nutts at the surface of the water splashing and throwing water out of the tank. He swims full speed in every direction hitting everything like rocks and tank walls. Do you think he is gonna die or has some kind of disease making him act this way? Never done it before until like three days ago.
help red devil acts weird
- Thread starter ajcamp
- Start date
A video will help. Seems abnormal, but he may just be showing off his aggression. The rock flicking sounds odd, so I'd bump up the temp to 86 degrees right away and add aquarium salt. Take out anything sharp or rough that can potentially hurt him. Keep the lights off for at least 24 hours and check if he continues to do that.
is the tank situated on a bare floor? i noticed when i had some tanks on bare wood floors, seemed the vibrations of ppl moving around scared some of my fishes.
If he is getting bigger in a smaller tank, his water might being going south faster in terms of quality than you might think. I would do all the things suggested so far and bump up water changes and test it to make sure. That or he could just be bonkers. 
Sometimes they can be just pissy, do small water changes frequently and add aquarium salt as mentioned.
IF he is also twitching his fins and/or scratching against objects it is probably a parasitic infestation of the skin or gills. These fish are crazy at times, but they don't repeatedly slam themselves into things for no reason.
If you suspect parasites, ramp up the salinity of the water (aquarium safe salt only) at a rate of one teaspoon per gallon, once every twelve hours for three treatments. Leave it at that leave for three days. If there's no improvement, please post here again.
If you suspect parasites, ramp up the salinity of the water (aquarium safe salt only) at a rate of one teaspoon per gallon, once every twelve hours for three treatments. Leave it at that leave for three days. If there's no improvement, please post here again.