Hi, I am wondering what to do with my aging algae eater. I've had him for almost a year and he's getting pretty big. He doesn't come out much except at night and I know that's normal for them. I think he's a little traumatized though. When my fish had dropsy a couple of months ago, I removed him from the tank and then I put him back but he fought me tooth and nail both times. He's never been quite right since! He stays inside his little house most of the time unless he comes out at night but his coloring is really strange. He looks bruised up. His house is kinda small and I've seen him squash himself around in there so it wouldn't surprise me if he was bruised, if fish can get bruised
I bought him a bigger house but he doesn't go in there much. I took a couple of pictures tonight while my water was low. I did a partial
water change. He got all freaked out when we got too close to him, started jumping all around and stuff. When he finally stopped, his gills were flapping so fast, he looked out of breath and maybe he was but he was still doing it a little while later. I just hope someone will look at these pictures and tell me if they think something might be wrong with him, like he's bruised. He used to be an orangy color and now he's all funky looking. I don't want to get rid of him unless I can find him a better home if maybe say, he's getting too big for my tank. And I don't want him to continue to be traumatized... thanks.
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) I would either move him to a larger tank, put larger caves/houses in, remove the smaller ones. (he'll use em eventually) Or try to find him a better home if you can't provide a larger tank.
