Fish Rubbing Gills On Gravel - Help Please!

[GreenA]

Hi everyone.


Both my male guppies have started to swim to the bottom of the tank rubbing their gills on the gravel and pushing themselves up again. They don't do it frequently just every now and then but it just looks wrong....

Tank details:

90l tank,
6 fish (2guppies (m), 2mollies (m/f), 2swordtails (m/f))
water changes at the moment between 50-90% depending on ammonia level


(checked with API master test kit)
ammonia: >0.25ppm (checked twice daily so it does not have a chance to spike)
nitrite:0ppm
nitrate:5.0ppm
pH:8.2 (constant)

filter is on and made for 100-140l tank
water temperature a constant 25°C

the fish look healthy, no white spots, no swollen gills, good appetite....

I have live plants in the tank and other than water conditioner for water changes no other chemicals.

Does anyone know what it could be? Do I need to worry?

Thanks in advance.

 

[white9870]

i got the same problem, one of my mollys does the same thing

 

[GreenA]

hi.
sorry to hear that, hope the molly is ok otherwise....
do you have any idea what that could be?

 

[white9870]

no i dont know sorry, iv only seen my molly do it twice, its like he needs to scrath

 

[GreenA]

I've been watching my tank for about 10mins just now and it seems like they do it more frequently....I'm getting worried now...

 

[white9870]

it could be sumfing like ich, but im not sure

 

[GreenA]

yeah, I just had a read trough a couple of other posts and it sounds like it could be something like it.....but I would not want to treat my fish with anything as long as I don't know it for certain....

I just hope that I will stumble across the answer somewhere or someone might know the answer to the problem....
thanks for your help tho...appreciate it

 

[fluttermoth]

Fish with ich don't start scratching until the spots show. I'd be inclined to blame it on the ammonia; even in trace amounts it can affect gill function and cause irritation.

 

[GreenA]

hi fluttermoth.

thanks for your reply! Is there anything I can do apart from water changes to help the irritation to soothe?

thanks again

 

[fluttermoth]

Normally I'd suggest a little salt, but I'm not sure that's a good idea with your pH being quite high plus the swordtails don't tolerate salt as well as the guppies and mollies would. Melafix might be worth a try; it's not great as medicine, as such, but it might be worh a try in your case as a sort of soothing tonic.

 

[GreenA]

ok. I'll keep my eye on the fish in case spots start to show and might consider Melafix if this continues without further signs of illness. thanks again

 

[minnnt]

It's usually an irritation and they feel the need to scratch themselves on something. Any amount of ammonia or nitrite can cause this in my experience. Try doing a fairly decent sized water change and monitor it, then do water changes accordingly, whether it be daily, weekly etc etc.

 

[Chris2]

It's usually an irritation and they feel the need to scratch themselves on something. Any amount of ammonia or nitrite can cause this in my experience. Try doing a fairly decent sized water change and monitor it, then do water changes accordingly, whether it be daily, weekly etc etc.

^^^This.

And not to outright contradict fluttermoth, but i have seen fish with ich that dont show it on there body/fins for a day or two. Sometimes it shows up in there gill plates before anywhere else, which makes them try to scratch it off.

 

[fluttermoth]

It's usually an irritation and they feel the need to scratch themselves on something. Any amount of ammonia or nitrite can cause this in my experience. Try doing a fairly decent sized water change and monitor it, then do water changes accordingly, whether it be daily, weekly etc etc.

^^^This.

And not to outright contradict fluttermoth, but i have seen fish with ich that dont show it on there body/fins for a day or two. Sometimes it shows up in there gill plates before anywhere else, which makes them try to scratch it off.

Lol, it's ok; contradict me if you like!

I've only had ich in my tanks once in the last 20 years and my fish didn't flick at all, so I'm not that experienced with it. There are different strains of the ich parasite, so maybe some are more 'itchy' than others?

 

[Athena]

Gill/Body Flukes can also cause great irritability in fish, which will make them scrape/scratch/flick against objects. The Flukes can be internal or external and usually invisible to the human eye, although sometimes you can see a few blurrey dots on finnage.

If after a couple of days there are no visible spots showing (indicating Whitespot disease, which looks like grains of salt), then you could try treating for Flukes with Sterazin.

Athena