Why Are My Fish Suddenly Scared Of Me?

[ATK!!!]

I came home today to find both of my platies cowering behind an ornament, I got out the food and they came over to ingestigate. As soon as they came into view they hid away again! It took me almost half an hour to get them to eat anything, as soon as they ate they swam away again. Whenever i put my hand up to the tank to feed them they hid, and whenever i showed them the food packet they came over again. I have had them since November now and have never had this problem. I recently found two Hydra growing in my tank but have been told these are harmless to all but the smallest fish.

Please help!

BTW the water conditions are absolutely fine and the fish do not look in bad health, the temperature is fine, there is plenty of surface agitation and they have nothing to be scared of.

 

[ATK!!!]

Theyre are acting even more strangely now, they are swimming on their side and hardly moving. I guess it must be something in the water???

 

[elisew]

You say the water is fine, what are the test results?

Sounds to me as thought there`s something wrong with the water quality so would advise a water change before you do anything else. Clean, fresh water can cure a multitude of problems and I would make that my first priority

 

[ATK!!!]

I think I have got to the bottom of the problem, this weekend I did a large water change in preperation for some cardinals i may be getting this or next week, I forgot to check the pH of the water i was putting in and I think it may have been drastically different from whats in the tank. The fish had been less active over the past few days and i think now they have finally taken the loads I heard that fish are more suseptible to ammonia if tyou have a high pH, if this is correct then the fish may be suffering. I recently tested some tap water to be around pH 8.4 the stuff in the tank is quite a bit lower (7.6) seeing as it was a 50% water change in such a small tank it may have caused problems. If anyone knows how to deal with pH stricken fish this would be a great help

thanks for the ideas anyway

 

[Bignose]

pH shock gets blamed for a lot of issues that really aren't pH related. A healthy fish will adjust to changes in pH very rapidly. A healthy fish can change its internal fluids' pH by over 4 full pH units an hour. Think of it this way -- rainwater and runoff almost never has the same pH as rivers and lakes. There aren't massive fish deaths every sudden thunderstorm. Also, the pH of water is temperature dependent. A lake on a sunny day warmed by the sun can change at least 1 and maybe even 2 pH units over the day as the water warms up and cools down. There aren't massive fish deaths every sunny day.

How long since you brought these fish home? They may have had time to finally show symptoms of a disease they've been carrying. If the ammonia and nitrite tests show zeros, I'd suspect a microbial reason for the new behavior rather than a water issue.

 

[ATK!!!]

As I said I bought them in November and they have never been acting this way before. I did a quick water change yesterday and wheni got up this morning they looked a bit happier, they were darting around for food and didnt seem nearly as bad. Would it really have taken this long for an infectoin to appear?

 

[Geoff-]

too well fed? i notice mine are more timid when their stomachs are full. hunger brings them out.

 

[Bignose]

Would it really have taken this long for an infectoin to appear?

It is a possibility, especially if the tank was somewhat lightly stocked. If they seem better today, then I'd just keep an eye on them. Maybe they just had a stressful day yesterday.

 

[ATK!!!]

They do seem an awful lot better today, the tank is very lightly stocked at the moment so your suggestion sounds very plausible. I will be getting a shoal of cardinals either this or next week so i hope they get on.

thanks for the help