My Cories Are Flashing

[Akasha72]

Hi all. As the title says my cories are flicking against the substrate,the plants and decorations. I've seen the odd platy do it too. It's quite hit and miss but it's starting to bother me.

There's no sign of white spot, I did a 40% water change on Sunday and the last time I checked my parameters all looked normal (that's about 10 days ago now as my tank has been cycled a while I no longer check the water as often) I can do a test in the morning if anyone thinks it's needed.

I dosed the tank for flukes about 3/4 weeks ago as they were all flashing and, again, no sign of whitespot and I didn't know what else it could be.

Can anyone suggest anything I've not thought of? I've already thought of stress but they don't seem stressed

Thanks
Akasha

 

[jcabs100]

Someone before on this forum said to me that it could be an itch of there's any redness then its cause for concern other than that it may be an itch...some of my fish do it as well but not often

 

[alihar]

Fish flashing is a sign of irritation and could be a number of things.
The odd flick isn't necessarily cause for concern as fish do get an itch just as we would.
If it becomes frequent then it is a sign of something bothering them.
Water parameters, ph swings, outside contaminants and of course parasites.
Most parasites will infect the gills of a fish so you don't necessarily see outward signs of infection straight away.
Check water parameters to start with.
Have you done anything different in the tank like add decor, plants or changed dechlorinator.
Any sprays or air freshener used near the tank?

 

[Zikofski]

usually my fish also do this but not often altho when i get a nitrite spike a saw them do it allot and thats how i found out something was wrong its a gd early warning sign if something has gone wrong i hope not in your case just an itch

 

[Akasha72]

I've just done a water test and everything is normal - PH between 6.8 & 7. No ammonia and no nitrite and around 5 for nitrate.

Not a water problem then.

I think I'm going to have to keep a close eye on things and see how it goes. It's definitely not ich as there's no sign of any white spots on any fish - I've had ich in the tank a couple of times so I know what to look for.

I did some research on flukes and it said they are really hard to spot as they arn't visable to the naked eye. When I dosed for flukes I only did a half dose as there was fry in the tank. My fry are a lot more grown up now and I think they'd cope with a full dose.

Does anyone think it's worth dosing again? I have the stuff by Waterlife, sterazin. It treats gill and body flukes and internal worms

 

[alihar]

I would try twice weekly water changes for a couple of weeks first.
Give substrate a good vac, filter good clean and wipe down glass with a sponge.
This will all help reduce the amount of parasites present if it is parasites you are dealing with.
Flukes are barely visible to the naked eye and need to be positively identified through scrapes and swabs under a microscope.
If flashing doesn't subside and you decide to treat for flukes use full dose of sterazin your fry should be able to cope with it.
I have treated with week old cory fry present and no adverse effects.
I always treat at least 21 days for flukes because of their life cycle. Treatments will not destroy fluke eggs it's only when they hatch treatments will work so the initial dose will paralyse adult and juvenile flukes present on fish and then effect larvae as they hatch.
Eggs take around 4 days to hatch and then they will search for a host.
Fluke solve is a very good medication in combating flukes it contains 50% praziquantel and is safe for filters, fish and plants.

 

[soybean]

Are they ALL flashing or just one species?

 

[Akasha72]

Are they ALL flashing or just one species?

a couple of my peppered cories and the odd platy. A few weeks ago it was nearly all of them which is why I treated for flukes. I'm now beginning to wonder if that half dose I did hasn't got rid of them completely.

If they are still flashing tonight (when lights are on, it's lights out time now) I might be tempted to re-treat ... unless anyone here advises otherwise

 

[alihar]

How often do they flash?

 

[Akasha72]

it's every now and again but it is daily. I've seen one of the peppered cories flashing in the last couple of hours. It also seems to be breathing faster than the others but that could be nothing ...

Not seen the platies doing it yet today but there's still time!

I really don't know what to do. Tomorrow is maintenance day, the substrate is looking quite grubby - there's like a bronze tinge to the black gravel - maybe that is the cause. I'm tempted to scoop it out and give it a good scrub but that would be a nightmare logisticly. I think I'll do a big water change and go overboard on the gravel vac and see if the flashing stops. I washed my sponges last week so I'm leaving them be. I've scrubbed the glass this afternoon on all four sides. There's hairy algae growing on my amazon swords aswell so a good prune and clean up is in order tomorrow. My fish are going to hate me

 

[Akasha72]

Update:

I've just been sat in front of the tank for nearly an hour just observing them. In that time I saw a female guppy rub her side on the gravel twice - the first time she flicked herself 4 times, the 2nd just twice. A few seconds later one of my bronze cories flicked itself on the gravel a couple of times before swimming over to a rock and rubbing on that too. Then the other bronze cory did exactly the same thing.

The other tank inhabitants were just swimming around happily.

I also noticed that the whole time all 6 cories were hunting viciously in the gravel for food - it was as if they were starving hungrey. They even tried to get under a rock so I'm presuming there's something under there food wise. They all shared a frozen blood worm block tonight and they had flake and sinking pellets this morning. I've now turned the light out and dropped in a couple of small broken bits of algae wafer.


I'm still confused about this flashing thing. I seem to notice it more on an evening but that could just be because I spend more time watching the fish on an evening ...

One thing I did wonder is could it be the lights that are irritating them? My heater is set to 25 and my thermometer reads 25 but I'm assuming when the lights are on for a couple of hours the temp will rise slightly. I read in one of my books that cories and guppies prefer a temp around 23/24. Could it be getting too warm for them and could that be causing them to flash? I can't find anything about the temp that platies prefer.

Any opinions would be great on this

 

[soybean]

That's why I asked if it was jut one type of cory or not. 25 is a bit high especially for peppered corys and if the lights are increasing the temperature too that's not ideal., I would keep the tank at about 23. Platys will be fine in that. Also try to increase surface agitation.

 

[Akasha72]

I've done a massive water change this morning - about 90 litres in total. The gravel has had a good going over with the syphon and I've gone round the plants taking off any leaves that had the hairy algae on or any that were starting to rot, had brown marks on etc.

Right now the lights are out cos by the time I'd done all that they were a bit stressed. I'd got the temp down to about 23 with the water change but hadn't altered the thermometer - I'll do it now Soybean and we'll see what happens later tonight. If they continue to flash I think the only option is to re-dose the sterazin. I saw one of the young platies doing it this morning so all species are affected.

 

[Akasha72]

they all seem a lot better since the water change yesterday. I've seen the odd flick but nothing like they were before the water change. Still watching them and I've not added any meds yet