Restless lesser siren

Hey everyone -

So I recently acquired a lesser siren. I'm not sure on the subspecies; he's around 10 inches long and he's a male. I can tell he's a male because he has those huge muscles on his head.

Anyway, the guy won't relax! He just goes back and forth all day long it seems. He's in a 20 long , with sand as substrate, and lots of hiding space. I'm on top of the water changes, I've got an air filter in there, and I make sure to remove any waste to keep the water clean. I've been feeding him salmon pellets and bloodworms. When he's finished eating he chills out for a bit but it's not long before he's back to swimming around aimlessly.

This has been concerning me because it's almost as if he hates his tank and wants to get out. I've done all that I can to make it accommodating for him and I'm not sure if I'm missing something or if there's anything I can do better. If anyone can give me some advice or suggestions on the matter I'd greatly appreciate it.

Here's the set up:

I agree, the first thing I would do is check for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph. If you don't have the kits you can often take water samples to a good aquarium store and they will check them for you for a small charge. I would strongly urge you to acquire the kits yourself though, as poor water quality can be a factor in all kinds of seemingly unrelated health issues

Mine will go through spells where she is more active. Then she will hide for a day or two. Do you have a filter with fast moving water? That can stress them out and make them more active. Do you have a hide where its entire body can fit in it and it be completly hidden? Maybe it is searching for a place to hide. I would put some live food in with it and maybe hunting will help it if it's restless.

P.S. Where did you get it from? I've been searching to get another and I cant find them. They even live naturally in my state.

You guys are right - I need to invest in a water quality kit. In the mean time I'll go into petsmart and have them test it. I guess I had assumed it would be fine since I spot check and remove waste consistently and I do a 20% water change weekly.

As far as the filter, it's an air filter. The one that is often used for raising fish fry, so there's absolutely no current whatsoever.

Pertaining to the breeding season comment, I thought of that too. Now besides an increase in the bio load, considering it's a 20 gallon with lots of hiding space (yes he's able to completely hide himself in three different places) would it be too much to house a female in there with him?

I got him from a local pet store in Wilmington, DE.

They can be territorial so a larger tank would be needed if you want to risk it. Yours may still keep growing too if it's only 10 inches.

Ok cool. Thanks everyone!

Any good suggestions for food? He seems very picky. He spits out food a lot. The salmon pellets are hit or miss, the frozen/thawed blood worms he was gobbling up at first but he seems to be spitting them out more, and I offered him some tiny preices of shrimp yesterday that he really liked. I'm getting a little frustrated finding a lot of uneaten food in the tank. I'd like to find a great staple food for him that won't cause to much effort on my part. For example, I just drop frozen/thawed shrimp in my amphiumas tank and he devours all of it. There's little to no clean up afterwards.

Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate all the advice

I have one too and my tank is the same size and pretty similar (minus the sand), and it never does that. I don't know the sex though. I got it pretty small. I think it's about 8 or ten inches now.

Mine eats anything I throw in her tank. I like to give a little bit of variety so that she gets her vitamins and there is stimuli for her. She eats night crawlers, frozen blood worms, blackworms, frozen shrimp (doesn't always eat all of this), ghost shrimp (she loves to stalk them), guppies (these she has to keep adjusting her stalking method because they seem to learn how she picks them off), salmon pellets, reptomin sticks, and I threw in shrimp pellets one time and she ate that too. Oh, I also had infestation snails hitch a ride on some plants I added to my tank and she eats those. I hear they love crawfish but I've not come across any that are small and at a price that is reasonable for food. Maybe yours will like something from that list.

I've had her for 2 or 3 years now and she is about 14 1/2 inches. I keep her in a 37 gallon long.