the other day I went to the pet shop with 3 friends into cichlids and we seen they had 4 dovii's round 4inches and this one male was BUCK WILD!! he's hoppin out the water doin back flips n stuff tryin to kill us and we were all like WOW if you wanted always wanted a dovii this is the one. so I picked him up, took him home and threw him in a 38gallon holding tank for now. well theres 3 or 4 large plastic plants in there and he wont come out, when I put him in he wouldnt budge from the cover he had found, today he comes out and does a lil finger chasing but he's still holding to his cover and he just deffinitly is not psycho like he was at the LFS. now after reading page after page of dovii owners I wonder. some owners have said dovii's can be a bit shy and one way to get around that is to leave them in a bare tank when theyre young and growing with lots of human interaction to break this habit ...my roommate thinks I should leave the cover in there since its only day 2 and we dont wanna spook him into a permanent state of shock. (its now 4 and he's doin some finger chasing with only minor hesitation) what do you think? I fed blood worm and rosy red minnows but he's only eating rosy's at the moment. beautifull fish though man, bluest one I ever seen. I got half the money saved up for a 180gallon already
new to board, dovii question
- Thread starter michaeljames
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actually the MORE cover you provide the less skittish they tend to be. placing him in a bare tank will make him hide up in the corner and be very stressed. i'd put a couple places for him to hide(pipes or clay pots), and throw a bunch of plants in there.
Give it time. Mine went from timid to mean at about 4" then timid again. At about 6" he turned into a Furry. All he wanted to do was kill and attack you or anything that came close to the tank. Now he is about 18" and he is a true Monster. With great color at that. It will happen. Just give it some time.
so put some cover back in is the consensus? I just find it odd because my red devil was a cracker jack right out the box at 4" and I never had in with anything other than slate. its weird how wild this fish was in his 20gallon at the LFS but he might have been there for a while with a 80 dollar price tag and there IS alot of traffic in my livingroom
I'm confused lmao
I'm confused lmao
enjoy i have one to best litle monster i ever owned
Most cichlids don't like being moved 
And like dmopar74 said, you might have to deal with your dovii being always skittish. A friend had a 11-12" male in a 125g and it wouldn't come out very often. Well until we moved fish into the 240gal that was next to his tank. I don't think he liked the new neighbors 
And like dmopar74 said, you might have to deal with your dovii being always skittish. A friend had a 11-12" male in a 125g and it wouldn't come out very often. Well until we moved fish into the 240gal that was next to his tank. I don't think he liked the new neighbors 
Yep.. this is an ongoing battle with my Dovii.. I've tried about everything, and in my case adding more cover just gave them more places to hide 
Tonight however I just sat in front of the tank for about 30 min and both came out and just stared at me from the front of the tank. I think they are starting to get a little curious about people as they will poke their head out to try and decide if they want to reveal themselves to you.
I can say my smaller male does stay out a lot more then my bigger female though.
Tonight however I just sat in front of the tank for about 30 min and both came out and just stared at me from the front of the tank. I think they are starting to get a little curious about people as they will poke their head out to try and decide if they want to reveal themselves to you.
I can say my smaller male does stay out a lot more then my bigger female though.
its been a little while now. I filled the tank with lots of shells a big corral and a upright rock. he likes to hide half his body behind the upright rock and stare at whats going on in the room. anyone approaches the tank and he's as attentive as a rottweiler, he goes crazy and puffs up his fins as soon as he see's fingers now. I found it took an hour or two a day of just sitting in front of the tank and interacting with him, but he's good and happy now. funny thing, I couldnt get him to eat many rosies or convicts or africans (I have a large female who breeds every second week and they grow fast, its rather annoying) anyways turns out he wants flake! maybe thats what they were feeding him at the LFS? so much for me thinking the $80 price tag was because he was wild caught!