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Hello all, newbie here and am having problems with my eupterus (Gengis). I've had him for about 7 months and he began his life as a 2 inch dumped in my goldfish pond. He is now 7" and until recently has been holding quarters (over winter) with my goldfish in a 75 gallon. He began getting a bit nippy with the goldfish and I decided it was time to separate them out. I set up a temporary tank for him 30 gallons with plants and a cave. He was doing quite well in with the goldies, eating well (a pig is more like it), "playing" (a little rough sometimes) and generally was in good health. Now a week into solitary for him and he won't eat. He swims around at the top of the tank and almost seems to be lunging up the sides of the tank out of the water like he wants out. The water parameters are all on target good pH, nitrites,ammonia, nitrates and all that. The water is a bit cooler than he was used to. All I had for a heater was an old one rated for 10-20 gallons. It runs at about 70-72 F, whereas he was at 75 F in the old tank. His fins are all erect and he still seems to have good energy. Could it be he misses his old cave and his goldies??? He was very attached to the cave he had in the 75. He has not eaten anything in over a week and his coloring is a bit more pale than before (you can see his spots)...I'm perplexed and very concerned. He's probably one of the coolest fish I've ever had. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. I don't know too much about their behavior

Thanks
-D

Hi welcome to PC

It runs at about 70-72 F,

That is the low end of the scale for sure

almost seems to be lunging up the sides of the tank out of the water like he wants out. The water parameters are all on target good pH, nitrites,ammonia, nitrates and all that.

I will throw some questions at you
Did you let the tank cycle ,is it newly set up...new filter ...new sand...real plants or plastic
is the cave big enough for him?
Is the tank in a high traffic area?

Try putting dark background paper on the back even the sides to see if it calms down

Birger

On top of the questions & suggestions from Birger which are all good, it pays to remember that the larger the body of water, the more stable it is & therefore the smaller it is the easier it would be to have one or more of the parameters change quickly. If he's not eating, are you removing all the waste food?

He may feel stressed in a smaller tank - the goldfish may have acted as dither fish for him to give him a feeling of security.

You may want to try some of the following:-

increase the amount of hidey-holes so he feels more comfortable, use natural daylight/roomlight only, feed only sparingly a couple of times a week - earthworms would be good.

Monitor the water conditions very closely - with a bit more info (answers to Birger's questions) we could be a bit more specific with advice

Thanks for the replies!!!
New tank
pH: 8.0
Nitrite 0.0
amm 0.0
nitrate 0.0
I'm using sponge/powerhead combo that came out of the goldfish tank he was in, as well as water from that tank. The sponge is well "broke in". I did put in new gravel on the bottom and not very much maybe 1/2" coating. (ecoComplete) The plants are live plants (two anubias and one large bunch of anacharis) and they were robbed out of the goldfish tank as well. I've been doing weekly water changes and have been feeding him like 2 or 3 pellets OR half a algae wafer OR half a krill once a day. I must confess I haven't been cleaning out the old food the best, just during water changes. Between water changes I do need to be cleaning though I wasn't too concerned because water tests have been good and I'm not feeding that much. The tank is in natural light for most of the day but in the evenings I turn on a small florescent, off of a ten gallon tank. It's still fairly subdued in there with that. The tank is really in a no traffic area, a spare bedroom.

I thought about putting 1 goldfish in there with him or possibly some guppies I have. The one thing though is his cave is not nearly as big as it was in the goldfish tank. He could actually swim around inside of it. I'm thinking maybe that's what he's missing

Again thanks for your thoughts
-Nixon

maybe he is cold and lonesome.