Is My Red Devil Cichlid Sick?

Question

This Is His Weird Swim  

This Is How He Lays Do   Hi... Well, I have had this Red Devil Cichlid with me for about 4 years and he already had 2 years of age when we bought him. Therefore he is about 6-7 years old. The thing is that I had him living on a 160 gallon aquarium where he lived by himself. However, I decided 2 weeks ago to divide the tank into 2 so that I could put some other ones. And so, I did as planed and everything was going fine until last week when one of the Frontosa Cichlid crossed to the other side and my Red Devil ate him. This was a conclusion of mine, for the Frontosa suddenly dissapeared and wasnt any where in the tank nor the filters. Two days later my Red Devil started to be depressed. He is only at the bottom of the tank laying down on one side of his body and at other points he is at the surface floating on one side. But, he is mostly at the bottom of the tank. He doesnt want to do anything like before, and the only times he swims is when I try to tease or push him to move. At those points he starts moving normal, but suddenly he starts making weird kind of like crazy movements and goes back to his laying down position. Oh... He does eat... I give him floating pellets... And he doesnt seem to have any marks of disease in his skin... I dont know what could be happening to him... Is he sick, stressed, old? I tryied to help him with some stress coat an API product but it didnt change anything... (Right now I have 2 Frontosas, 2 African Jewels, and a Spotted Pufer on the other half of the tank. The temperature of the tank is around 65-82 degrees F, and this has always been the temperature range since I have him.) I'll apreciate the help.

Answer
Hi Luis,
 That is a tough one. It is possible that the red devil ate the frontosa, but if that was the case, then any ill effects would likely be gone by now.  More than likely the new fish introduced some sort of disease that is causing the red devil's symptoms.  When he poops, is it the normal brown stuff, or is it white and stringy? The latter would indicate some sort of intestinal infection.

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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