My Fish Have Been Acting Weird This Week

[goldfish98]

Every morning, I find the same two fish laying on the gravel. They don't move their fins, so it looks like they are dead. But after 5 minutes, one starts moving. The other takes another 10 minutes, When I turn on the light, the other two poke their heads out of the reef and give me that "5 more minutes!" look. One of those stays in the corner of the tank all morning. In the afternoon, the hifin platy backs away when I look at him. He has never done that before. I also noticed that he is getting a tiny bit fatter. What is going on?

 

[Meeresstille]

Fish sleep, so that you find them resting on the bottom is quite normal. If the room is dark when you turn on the aquarium light, it's probably too sudden and they may be staying in that position because of that. Try turning on the lights in the room for a while before turning on the lights in the aquarium, maybe it will make a difference.
 
If your platy is female, then the fish getting "fatter" could very likely be that she is pregnant. Fish getting fatter could also be a sign of over-feeding, or parasites. If the scales start standing up, in a pine-cone fashion, that would be a sign of dropsy. Hopefully your platy is just pregnant!

 
This is probably a dumb question, but when you say "reef" it's not actually a reef like for saltwater tanks, right?

 

[goldfish98]

Thats what I do. I turn on the light in the room while I am going through my morning routine, then I turn the tank light on. I usually wake up at 5:00 AM, and I leave for school at 7. When I leave, I turn the light off. Once I get back home, I turn it back on.
 
The scales don't seem to be standing up like a pinecone. I did recently start feeding them a little more food because I was told I was underfeeding them. 
 
The reef is just a decoration from the pet store. 

 

[Meeresstille]

 
 
The reef is just a decoration from the pet store. 

Is the decoration made of resin, or other man-made material? Do you know the pH of your tank water? I'm worried that the decoration could be altering the water parameters to levels that your fish don't like.

 

[l_l_l]

What are your water parameters like?

 

[goldfish98]

I will test it later. All I have is test strips though. They actually seem happier now..

 

[goldfish98]

Yup, they are acting normal again. I guess they don't like mornings?