I don’t know what’s wrong with my red devil cichlid

[Kurapicaca]

I’ve had my red devil for about a year but I don’t know how old he is because my parents got him at petco. He’s around four inches and has a 10 gallon tank that we are soon upgrading. For the past couple months he has been very inactive but will swim around occasionally, he rarely eats and when he does the food has already been in the water for some time and he splashes the surface and swims back to his log.

I did a water test a while ago and his nitrate was high and google said to do frequent water changes. I just changed his water and he swam away from his log that he has been hiding under for like 2 days but he didn’t eat his food. I have tried a diet change and gave him frozen blood worms that I’m pretty sure he didn’t eat and got sucked up into the filter or something. I usually feed him TetraCichlid floating sticks and sometimes Omega One pellets that are supposed to help with color.

there’s pretty high foot traffic in my room and with dogs running around but I don’t know if he cares? His log is near the front and he doesn’t hide behind his rock bear the back. He is right next to my tv but it’s never super loud or anything.

as I’m typing this he’s swimming around.
All he has in his tank a a log and a rock with some sand. I’m realizing I haven’t been taking very good care of him because his tank is kinda dirty and I had to wipe off sludge off the walls of his tank and off of his filter. I want to take way better care of him so if anyone helps I appreciate it

 

[Midwater]

... has a 10 gallon tank ... nitrate was high ... I haven’t been taking very good care ... tank is kinda dirty ... sludge ...

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

This has got to be the most trolling of troll posts I've ever seen.

 

[Deadeye]

Welcome to the forum!
I’ll take the benefit of the doubt here and assume this is real.
A few big things wrong here, which have already been pointed out.
A red devil needs a lot more than a 10 gallon tank, like at least 125 gallons. And at a year old it should be a lot larger than 4 inches.
Water changes are your best friend in the hobby. If you are seeing nitrate reading over 20, it is definitely far too high, but you really want it as close to zero as possible.
Cichlids definitely do stress out with too much traffic and not enough hiding spots.
Bluntly, not eating sounds like a combination of a lot of poor care to be fixed.
It’s not too late to give this fish a long healthy life!

 

[esoxlucius]

Why do people start threads on here when the answer to their problem is glaringly obvious and right in front of their own noses!

You've rhymed off all the answers to your fishes problem in your opening post!!!

In short, you are not providing the fish with the care it deserves, on all levels, it's as easy as that.

Thankfully fish can be rather resilient creatures so you have time to turn the fishes situation around, though as far as it's growth goes I fear you could have permanently stunted the poor thing through ludicrously inadequate tank size.

I wish your red devil all the luck in the world, I have a feeling it might need it!

 

[tlindsey]

You can actually kill the Red Devil because no proper wc's becomes the old tank syndrome. I suggest not doing large wc's but smaller ones until PH matches PH from your tap. If you had the Red Devil for a year it should be larger than 4 inches hopefully it's not stunted.

 

[tlindsey]

I’ve had my red devil for about a year but I don’t know how old he is because my parents got him at petco. He’s around four inches and has a 10 gallon tank that we are soon upgrading. For the past couple months he has been very inactive but will swim around occasionally, he rarely eats and when he does the food has already been in the water for some time and he splashes the surface and swims back to his log.

I did a water test a while ago and his nitrate was high and google said to do frequent water changes. I just changed his water and he swam away from his log that he has been hiding under for like 2 days but he didn’t eat his food. I have tried a diet change and gave him frozen blood worms that I’m pretty sure he didn’t eat and got sucked up into the filter or something. I usually feed him TetraCichlid floating sticks and sometimes Omega One pellets that are supposed to help with color.

there’s pretty high foot traffic in my room and with dogs running around but I don’t know if he cares? His log is near the front and he doesn’t hide behind his rock bear the back. He is right next to my tv but it’s never super loud or anything.

as I’m typing this he’s swimming around.
All he has in his tank a a log and a rock with some sand. I’m realizing I haven’t been taking very good care of him because his tank is kinda dirty and I had to wipe off sludge off the walls of his tank and off of his filter. I want to take way better care of him so if anyone helps I appreciate it

Welcome aboard

 

[Deadeye]

As for stunting, I don’t think it’s too late.
My Jack Dempsey stayed at 3 inches for a while due to my poor care but once I started doing better it shot up.