Red Rainbowfish Twitching

[deinonychus]

Hello.

I have 4 red rainbowfish, of which at least two (it's hard to tell as they all look so alike) have developed a sort of tic. They'll be swimming around normally and then they'll start twitching around. This can go through the whole body, looking like they're being electrocuted, or just be in the head - which they shake from side to side - so fast it's almost blur.

It normally happens in about three bursts of a couple of seconds each. Sometimes it's strong enough to cause them to jump out of the water, banging off the lights (only fluorescent, so not too hot....).

The one who is worst affected is spending most of his time near the bottom of the tank looking miserable, but will occasionally swim about and be quite violent to the others.

My water parameters are all fine. All other types of fish (clown loaches, tetras, pleco) are unaffected. There is no sign of any damage/infestation on the skin or gills of the fish.

I'd be very grateful for any advice!

Thanks

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons is the tank.
If water quality is fine it sound like a parasite if it look like a tic.
Fish louse will look disc shaped with legs, does the parasite have legs.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi Wilder, I think the tic they are talking about is a nervous twitch type tic not a parasite tick that feeds off your blood.

Most problems with rainbowfish are related to poor water quality. This can be lack of water changes and high ammonia, nitrite or nitrate levels. Or dirty gravel and filters that need cleaning. The dirty gravel and filters is a big cause allowing bacteria and viruses to develop and build up in numbers. The fish become run down these problems get into the fish and make them sick.
Try doing a 50% water change each day for the next week. Make sure you gravel clean as much of the tank each time you do the water change, and clean the filters. Make sure you use dechlorinated water with a similar temperature and PH to the tank. Don't wash the filters out under tap water.

If you are feeding frozen bloodworms to the fish don't. It has been known to cause problems in rainbows. A small amount on occasions isn't a problem but if fed regularly (every day) it can bring on heaps of issues.
Rainbows need lots of plant matter in their diet. I used to feed mine on Hikari Gold goldfish pellets and marine pellets. I also gave them duckweed (floating plant) and various vegetables like peas that had been soaked in boiling water for a few seconds to soften them up. Once cooled they were offered to the fish.

 

[deinonychus]

Thnaks for the replies.

It is a nervous twitch type tic, yes! The tank is 125 litres, by the way.

- nitrate and nitrite levels are fine (<25 and 0). My test strips don't test for ammonia - but I presume if my nitrate and nitrite are staying that low then it can't be that high..? I'm sure I may well be wrong though. They were however starved for about 4 days over Easter whilst I was on holiday, so ammonia should have been 0 when I returned - and they still had symptoms.

- The filters are cleaned regularly. The gravel is hardly cleaned at all, because I have a lot of plants, and there are very few gaps between them to gravel. I read somewhere that you don't have to vacuum heavily planted tanks. Is this true?

- The water I add is dechlorinated, and same ph as tank. I normally put it in a few degrees colder, though (I do weekly 10% water changes), as I read that fish seem to enjoy it (and it makes them quite frisky - not that they ever seem to mate any more, since they've been affected, come to think of it).

- I put microwaved celery and cucumber in the tank, but only my Clown Loaches eat it - the Rainbowfish never show any interest. If they are desperate for vegetable, would they go after the plants in the tank? They don't seem to.

Anyway, I'll try big water changes clean the worst bits of the gravel and see if they like peas!

Just something else that occurs - I recently put a new fertilizer bag for my plants in the filter. If the fertilizer is leaking too fast from it, could that cause symptoms like these? I know fertilizers cause neurological problems in people - but I presume a fish's biology is a bit different.....

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Colin_T]

You can have an ammonia problem whilst the nitrite and nitrate remain normal. It is usually caused by excess food and cleaning the filter out under tap water. But it sounds like you are maintaining the filters fine.

Although plants will help keep the gravel clean any rotting matter can cause problems to rainbowfish. They don't do well in dirty tanks. If possible gravel clean as much of the tank as you can. You don't have to pull the plants up but try to gravel clean around them.

10% water changes only dilute nutrients a bit. Unfortunately there are lots of bacteria, viruses and parasites that live in the water and if you only do small water changes, their numbers can build up. Doing bigger water changes dilutes their numbers and makes it better for the fish.

Rainbows will eat plants if there is no other vegetable matter in their diet. Some plants with tough leaves won't be eaten but others like Ambulia and Hygrophilla sp can get chomped. If they don't eat the microwaved celery or cucumber try it raw. Also try other fruits and veges. The only things not to give them are onions and related plants and potatoes. Everything else can be tried, either cooked or raw.

Fish suffer from chemical poisoning just like people so it depends on the fertilisers in the bag. Also if you overdose with fertiliser you can cause problems. Rainbows are pretty sensitive to chemicals in their water.

To work out the volume of water in the tank
measure the Length x Width x Height in cm
divide by 1000
equals volume in litres

When measuring the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level. Remove any big bits of wood or rock before measuring the height.

 

[WILDER]

Sorry must of read it wrong.

 

[deinonychus]

I've started on the water changes, removed the fertilizer and added a bit of activated carbon to soak the excess up.

I'll have a go at vacuuming the gravel as best I can and give them some vegetables.

Fingers crossed!