Fish Behaving Very Oddly

[spesh]

Not sure if I am panicing about nothing here but all of a sudden my fish have changed dramatically in their movements and actions.

I'll outline the tank first.


125L
Fluval 3+ internal filter - Normal pads and carbon insert
Fluval 305 external filter (9 days old). 3 baskets of biomax and 3 baskets of carbon
Tank temp ~25c
no2 = 1mg/l
no3 = 10mg/l
gh = 6d
kh = 3-6d
ph = 6.8-7.0

I have a reasonable stock of live plants (around 7-8) and a co2 system for them.

Inside the tank are a few resin type ornamants and 1 large piece of bogwood.

Nothing has been added to the tank recently aside from the filter change. I've moved to an external as the internal one didn't offer enough filtering to remove the tanin from the bogwood and I had a brown tinge to the water. Since adding the exteranal 9 days ago the water quality has improved dramatically. I planned on removing the internal filter in another weeks time approx.

Fish stocks -
4no Tiger Barbs
4no Albino Barbs
4no Golden Barbs
4no Red Eyed Tetra
1no Red tail shark
1no Plec
1no Ropefish
3no (small catfish type fish with spiky fins, cant remember the name!)

The tank is about 3 months old and there have been no previous problems aside from discoloured water caused by the bogwood i think, now resolved with additional filtration.


Problem.

Today the fish are very very erratic. Not normal barb "chasing each other like crazy" stuff but really fast random movements. I can hear them breaking the surface frequently, something that they never do (unless being fed). They are also almost cowering behind plants and the internal filter, again something that they never do.
They dont appear to be gasping for the surface but when being erratic they are against the glass.

Scales look good, no fungal slime visible and the eyes look ok.

They have recently been overfed a little and some are looking "fat" in the belly but they are swimming straight.

I've just done a 40% water change as a precaution (2 days early) and turned off the lights in the tank to try and settle them.

The only fish that seem normal are the plec and my 3no catfish types.

Any idea's?

 

[WILDER]

Immediate water change and increase aeration you have a nitrite reading it should be 0.
How often do you do a gravel vac and water change.

 

[tangokitty]

I also agree at the first sign of oddness in my fish I always do a water change right away. Many times that's all that's needed. But watch them closely after the change to see if they are exhibiting the same behavior

 

[spesh]

I normally do a 25-30% water change weekly and a gravel clean every other week.

They seem a little more settled today although still being quite odd. I'm going to do another 20% tonight if they have not improved. I think the nitrite reading has occured from the overfeeding (I was working away and left a friend to feed) so i'm holding off feeding them for a day or two also.

 

[electric yellow]

You may want to have a look at the stocking of your tank too. If its only been running for 3mths thats a lot of stock for a tank that has not had much time to build up bacteria.

Did you complete a full cycle before adding fishies?

 

[spesh]

Agreed that its a few too many fish too soon, a lesson i've now learnt. The tank has been through several cycles and has been ok up untill a few days back. I think that its been maybe 'close' on running cycles ok due to the youth of the tank but that the overfeeding that occured has tipped it over the edge. As you say there is likely not enough bacteria present to cope with any variations in the tank.

I've just done another 20% change and cleaned 1/2 the foam media. I wanted to leave the filters alone but there was a little too much plant/solid matter there so I had to.

I've added some nutrifin cycle to try and boost the bacteria content in the tank and I also took a water sample to the aquarium shop to test and the nitrite is still present but reduced. They checked for ammonia too (something I dont have a test kit for) and was told that that was fine.

Its been a long time since I had a tank so I'm a little rusty and maybe relied a little too much on advice given in a local 'generic' pet store. I've since found a local specialist who is an awful lot more knowledgeable and helpful so hopefully i'll not make any further potentially fatal mistakes with my tank.


At the moment the fish' behaviour is alot closer to what I would expect with just one Golden Barb that remains unhappy. It was the 'alpha' barb and looks to be rather fat so i suspect its suffered the most from the overfeeding. So long as it doesnt get picked on by the other fish I think it'll be fine in a few days. My red eye tetra's are also still a little more reclusive than normal too.


I've been advised to do another fairly major (40-50%) water change on tuesday and then resume feeding on wednesday onwards and feed nothing in the meantime. Does that sound sensible?

 

[WILDER]

That sounds fine so far what you are doing.
Best to have lots of aeration when water stats are bad.
Good luck.

 

[spesh]

I've lost my ropefish and one golden barb. One of the albino barbs is looking rather pale too.

The water stats are as above less the nitrite now and thats been good for over a week.

I've added some freshwater salt to the tank gradually thats perked the rest of the fish up but I awoke this morning to my ropefish floating around dead being picked at by the barbs. This evening I found a golden barb almost dead and missing most of its fins


I've noted some occasional flashing and resting 'head standing' almost, theres also a few 'bloated' fish which I assume is swim bladder related. Nothing visible on the fish aside from some colour loss and the bloating. No spots, growths, cotton wool.

The only 2 fish that seem totally unaffected are my Red Tail Shark and Plec.

Very open to idea's as i'm now fearing further losses

 

[spesh]

Ok the headstanding is nothing to worry about, a badly placed light in my living room seems to have been confusing the fish if the tank lights are off.


But.. they are still not happy. Very skittish and nervous and still flashing. I cant see anything on them at all.. the only thing I can find that may be wrong is flukes maybe? Seems these are too small to be visible but can cause the problems I'm having.

I'm at my wits end

 

[WILDER]

Signs of skin and gills flukes are.
Red inflamed gills, or pale gills with excess mucas.
Opaque body with excess slime.
Flicking and rubbing against objects in the tank.
Laboured breathing or gasping at the surface of the tank.
Swimming in a jerky movement.
Weighloss.
Sores on the body of the fish.
Erratic swimming,.
Spitting food out.