Red Devil Sulking - Not Eating

Question
I recently acquired a Red Devil with his tank.  He was really happy with us the first 3 weeks.  Then I finally got around to cleaning his tank and oh was it dirty.  The problem came because the only cleaning equipment I have is a siphon thingy from when all I had was a 20 gallon goldfish tank.  So I would have to let the gunk settle for an hour and come back and pour the cleaner water on top of my many buckets back into his tank.  The siphon sucks alot of water but not much dirt so I am looking into ordering an electric tank cleaner that recycles the water more efficiently as well.  The filter ran the whole while but he did not take kindly to this day long invasion of his tank at all.  He has never been right since.  He has not eaten in a week.  He dug a hole to the mirrored bottom and just looks at himself.  One night the window by his tank had the blinds still open and I caught him flirting with his reflection thinking it was another fish.  But he still won't eat.  I have been trying to read about Red Devil temperament but find very little.  Also how much to feed him.  When I ask people say "Once per day".  I am trying to determine how much food - 2 pellets - 6 pellets?  I received no guidance from his previous owner so I had been feeding him 2 pellets in the a.m., 2 pellets in the afternoon and then 1 krill at night.  Last night I even gave him chicken (which the turtles loved) and he just let it rot there.  Please teach me how to make him happy and how long will it take him to get over the cleaning?

Answer
Hi Luckitri
Saw your question in our question pool.

Red devils aren't usually "sulkers", like oscars are.  For feeding, I would feed him a few pellets, let him eat, then feed a few more.  My red devil/midas is about 14 inches, and I feed once a day, and put in about 10-15 pellets(large ones of course).  He eats them all within  a few minutes.  I would suggest feeding a good amount, then what ever is not eaten in 5 minutes, net out.  That should give you a good idea of how much to feed.  Also be sure you're varying his diet as well.  I'd say no to the chicken, but cut up pieces of cocktail or salad shrimp, the krill is good, cut up pieces of squid or fish fillets, if he's still small enough blood worms work good, earthworms, meal worms, crickets.  Once a week I try to give all my fish a pea or at least the inside of it.  My red devil/midas won't eat them though, so I give him an algae wafer to chow on weekly.  This can help with constipation issues in fish.  There's some good recipes out there for making your own fish food for larger cichlids, try looking at some oscar sites and such, the requirements would be about the same anyway.  And, that's where I've mostly seen the recipes, and oscars seem to be a bit more common then rd's or midas cichlids.

For the other issue of the sulking.....If you don't have a test kit, I strongly suggest buying one.  There's 2 kinds available, the dipstick and liquid dropper kinds, and I recommend the liquid dropper kit.  API Freshwater Master Test Kit is good, has all the tests you need, and costs about 30. if you buy at the store, 1/2 that if you buy online.  If it was that dirty when you cleaned it, you probably stirred up all that old food and waste, and caused the ammonia levels to spike.  In a normal, not over stocked, completely cycled tank, ammonia and nitrite levels should be 0 ppm, and nitrates should be kept under 20 ppm.  Anything other then those levels, and the fish can show signs of stress, get sick with parasite or bacterial infections, or die.  So, without knowing exactly what those readings are, it's possible that's what's going on and once the water quality improves, so will the fish.  
I've never seen an electric siphon, I'm guessing you're talking about a Python cleaner that hooks up to the sink?  If so, that's great, they work really good and I recommend them for larger tanks or multiple tanks, makes it a lot easier to clean them.  Don't ever change out all the water at once in the tank though.  Stick with 25% daily water changes, no more then 50% a day though.  It could lead to a temperature difference or ph difference which can shock the fish.  Also, don't change out any of your filter media during the next few weeks as well.  Most of your beneficial bacteria is growing on that, and if you change it, it'll just cause more problems with the ammonia and such.  If it needs cleaning, which sounds like it may, just rinse it off in a bucket of used tank water and immediately put it back.  That'll help keep the good bacteria.  

Not sure on your tank size and filtration, but hopefully it's at least a 55 gallon tank for him alone.  That's a minimum size, a larger would be better especially since they can grow larger then the width of a 55 gallon.  For filtration, make sure you're over filtering the tank as well.  Canister filters work well with large cichlids in conjunction with a large hang on the back type of filter.  I don't recommend an undergravel filter with them though, or for any fish for that matter lol....not a fan of those filters.

Another thing you can do as well in the meantime, assuming that  ammonia and/or nitrite is present, pick up some Prime by Seachem.  It's a water dechlorinator, but also neutralizes ammonia and nitrites to a nontoxic form, without removing them-so the tank can still finish cycling.  It dissipates after 24 hours though, so it would need to be added daily, but a little bit goes a long with with that product.

Another thing, you can also look up midas cichlids for more info on them.  They're not the same, but similar, and some say the fish you buy in the store are actually cross breds of the two.  I've read that they have cross bred in nature in the wild as well, so it's possible.  They can be difficult to tell the difference, it's minor stuff like the mouth shape that distinguishes between the two, but otherwise, it's hard to tell.  The requirements would be the same for both of them, and both have pretty nasty dispositions as well and are best kept singly in a large tank-though there's always the exception to that.  

Here's some links:

A midas:
 http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/496.htm

A RD:
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/374.htm

http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile114.html

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+889+924&pcatid=924

http://www.aquariumlife.net/profiles/central-american-cichlids/midas-cichlid/100...

http://www.aquariumlife.net/profiles/central-american-cichlids/red-devil/100044....

Hope that helps and good luck with your fish!  With proper care, that fish you have can live 10+ years.  Mine's going on about the 9 year mark now.....Let me know if you have more questions!

Christy