fish FREEKING out

[giroux68]

any idea of why my fish would start darting from side to side of the tank, bashing against the glass and rocks? This is not after water changes. I've observed this from the far side of the room, so it's not me scaring them. They have been thrashing the surface of the water - one jumped out today! I added salt yesterday and they calmed down, but still jittery. any ideas?

[tony1313]

Hey giroux68, I had the same problem. I bought new lights(compact flouresent), the fish hated them. When ever they were on the fish freaked, dart from end to end , cower in the corners. As soon as the lights were off they were fine. Just a thought.
:-\
Tony

[keith_cny]

What are you feeding them?? Have you started feeding anything new recently? How do thet act after darting is over? Sounds like could be a bacterial infection.

Keith

[Carol_Roberts]

Every few months we get a post like this and no one has determined a cause. Guesses are stray voltage, parasites, lights, shadows, discus whirling disease, on and on. If you figure it out let us know . . . .

[blaze]

discus whirling disease LOL... thanks Carol
[trying to catch my breath]....
seriously thought I know exactly what u r talking about, & it is a Scary Sight, It looks like its demon posessed.

They have been thrashing the surface of the water

my smaller discus used to do it like four times a week, for 3weeks,
then for no apparrent reason is has stopped (crosses fingers).
What size discus do u find it most common in?

[giroux68]

I added the discus cure all to the tank last night ( salt ) seemed to calm them a bit, but a few more bouts of attacking the glass happened today. they are all covered with scratches from all this. I try to get some photos tomarrow.

[Carol_Roberts]

Can you try a different heater, filter, etc.? Is this a totally bare tank? If not pull everything out. Try fluke tabs if you have moderately hard water with a pH above 7. Leave the lights off, cover 90% of the tank with paper.

If you get them to settle down add back one thing at a time until you figure out the cause.

[BlueTurquoise]

Yes, if you remove other cuases such as shadows (turn off lights) You (cover the tank) and stray voltage (change heater) I would definately look at parasites.

Gill flukes use to make my fish acrobatic! and they were defiantely not scared, nor was there stray voltage...

[jeep]

I've had experience with this 3 times (other peoples fish) and 2 of them died. The only success (after eliminating shadows, lighting and electrical current) was by adding 1TBS of salt per gallon and bumping the temp to around 88.

Like Carol said, there really hasn't been a difinitive answer to this.

Good luck,

Brian

[Nightowl]

hello all, I had this happen to a fish in my 125g. tank about 3 months ago. Of course, it was the nicest, largest one. It darted about and thrashed at the surface... I thought something had hit the front door! So I changed water, added formalin, then salt a few days later. The fish had a slightly less drastic event a few days later, twirling around, etc. I added a bit more salt, then returned to reg. maintenance of tank. I didn't change heaters, the light (1 40 w bulb) is on 24/7. Can't really pinpoint the problem, but I believe it was something in the gills. The other 10 discus in the tank were fine. Can't recall if diet was different; I was using frozen BW 3-5 times a week; now only as a treat. BTW the fish is a beautiful "red dragon" male that I got from LFS. Most might not like because he is peppery/black. He is quite healthy & recently paired w/ a RT female and they currently have wigglers on intake tube of filter! When I get a camera I will post some pics... he may be the roundest fish I've ever owned. Hope to move pair into own tank soon. Oh, I didn't change temp. at all when the fish was wigging...... it stayed at 83. Well take care & good luck to all.... J

[brewmaster15]

Hi giroux68,
That behavior is usually reported affecting a particular fish in the tank. If its more than one fish at once something may be irritating them. be sure your water is good and nothing has changed on your suppliers side.

About a month ago you mentioned that you had nitrate problems... +20ppm? If you are still having problems with Nitrates... That is a likely culprit.

Many associations have been made between Nitrates, discus, stress, and skittish behavior.

hth,
al

[afick1975]

I also had the same problem before. After I checked everything I found out that my water company was fooling around with the ph. The ph would always be 7.0 and then for three weeks it change to 8.0. I do a 60 percent water change and that seemed to freak them out. After I took care of the PH problem all was well.


Andre

[BlueTurquoise]

Yeah hat Al said! Water issues could be another cuase... I thought about it last night and remembered that I forgot to ad that in, he beat me to it

[giroux68]

thanks for all the input. The salt seems to have done the trick for now! They have settled down to normal since I added the salt. The nitrates have been down, I have been doing 13 gallon water changes daily with about 2 20 gallon changes a week. I was getting worried about Gill Flukes or some other parasite. On another topic - all those copepods, tiny little, white spec type bugs are gone! for now at least.

[BlueTurquoise]

Nothing beats water changes ;D

best of luck!