Fish Behavior....what does this mean?

[giroux68]

A few of my older fish have been shaking their dorsal and tail fins rapidly, rubbing against plant stems and drift wood. Today I watched as 2 of my youngest (2inch) started to shake together in unison.... I thought this might be a courtship display, but I have no idea.

[ReeferKimberly]

well just shaking in front of eachother could be a sort of courtship but when u mentioned rubbing it made me think more towards some kind of parasite. i heard a lot of shaking usually means gill flukes but it could also mean a lot of different things. have you noticed any more unusual behavior or observed anything different looks wise? what color is their feces? do you see if any of them are breathing heavier then usual or out of only one side? questions questions...to get down to what it is and be sure we may need more info.

ps, some fish will just shake once in a while and it means nothing, but when it gets to be all the time then it's time to worry
kim :-*

[BlueTurquoise]

If they shake then it is most likely courtship. But if they scratch themselves against something then I would be worried. It could be both, you never know.

Keep an eye on them, if they are sratching then that is definately not just courtship!

ps. Nice avatar pic Kim!

[Carol_Roberts]

Constipated discus also shake and shimmy . . . . .

[ReeferKimberly]

hey thanks chong!
it took me a while to find an animated one that could ift the 65 x 65 b/c i don't really know how to resize...
kim :-*

[larry lob]

Hi,

Sorry but did you say 2 inch fish? i take it they are less than 6 months old? i seriously doubt that fish that young are showing, keep a watchfull eye on them some thing gave em an itch, had you just made a water change? maybe new water was a little off for them.

Eyes open keep us posted

HTH

Larry

[giroux68]

One is now looking very dark and hiding out away from the others, breathing faster than the rest. I have added salt and turned up the heat. From what I have read here, I am thinking gill flukes. They all seem to not be eating at all either.

[discuskrib]

definately not a good sign
you may also want to do a few extra water changes over the course of the next week as well.

[Ardan]

Could be gill flukes.

praziquantel is pretty good for that. get it by email at billman@citynet.net

hth

[amirnezhad]

Hi,

ham helper said that it could be kind of parasite!
Now I have 6 Discuses and 2 of them do just like what giroux68 said, their color turned to dark and they do not eat anything :-[
What can I do for this 2 poor fishes? Changing their place? adding some salt (or ...) to water? how much? turning up the heat? Please help me

Thanks

[amirnezhad]

Hi again

I read some messages about adding epsom salt into tank, but I dont know what kind of salt do you mean? Is this is that kind of salt that added some iod in it or not?

Thanks?

[giroux68]

Talked with a LFS guy yesterday for a while. Very helpfull. I decided to start with Paraguard in the tank first since I have a planted tank. The small white flea looking things have mulitplied at an unreal rate and can be seen on the plants everywhere. Fin fraying can be seen on a few more fish. The biggest are affected the least. Added 1 tbls./5galls of NON Iodionized table salt. I'm hoping this works and I don't lose the fish and the plants - Everything had just started to come together and then this......

[Jeff]

Forget the plants and save the fish.

[Carol_Roberts]

Time to clean the tank, filters and increase water changes . . . bugs and frayed fins = water quality problems

[giroux68]

this photo is of the white bugs I have. Not the best but maybe someone can ID them.