Fish Flicking - Advice

[DaveyG]

Hi

I have a 200L tank, well planted and at the moment hugely understocked with only about 15 fish in it.

All water stats are fine.

I recently had a few sudden, unexplained deaths in the tank and so I treated for internal bacteria as that seemed to fit best. Since then there have been no deaths and the tank seems very happy again (fish eating well, very active).

However I noticed a couple of times that 1 of my male guppies was flicking himself off the gravel. I can watch for hours and he won't do it but then he may do it once every few days (that I can see).

As far as I can see he is the only one who is doing it and I am wondering if there is something I need to be worried about??

Of course it is easy to type this into google and you get all sorts of horror stories about white spot, ich, and worse, but I wanted to ask people's opinions since he has no other symptoms, seems very happy and no other fish are doing it.

Occasionally I've also seen long, stringy, white poo from a couple of the fish but not very often.

Does anyone have any advice as to whether I need to worry or need to do something? Or do fish just get itches sometimes.... ?

 

[snowflake311]

Sounds like parasites. String poop can be a sign of internal parasites or just due to stress and it's it's stress it will clear up in a day or so.

String poop could be due to stress caused by the parasite. Flashing or rubbing can be parasites or not enought water treatment when doing a water change and some times fish get an itch but they should not be doing it everyday. If you have lost some fish I would say it is a parasite what one I can not say.

Keep a close eye on them. You might want to try jungles parasite clear. It's good for interal and external parasites.