Do Fish Get Depressed?

[ronin]

I added a new female koi sword to my tank earlier this week and she hasn't been doing anything except literally moping about. At first I thought it was a combination of it being sick and also being picked on by my existing female koi sword cause she kept her dorsal fin clamped down most of the time and would usually be hovering near the ground or hiding in the back of the tank. And she won't eat. But yesterday I just lost a female black sword out of the blue and even she was eating every day prior to her rather unexpected demise.

So today I moved it into a quarantine tank and dosed it with some Melafix and Maracin Plus. While she's no longer clamping down her dorsal fin, she's still not doing much of anything else. Just slowly swimming around the tank. Tried to tempt her with some unthawed brine shrimp, no dice. Left some small flakes floating on top just in case, didn't touch them.

For a while there I thought she was blind or something cause I stuck my plant tweezers in front of her face and she doesn't react. She'll slowly back away if I push the tweezers towards her face but she doesn't jet off pell mell like most fish usually do anytime anything foreign comes near them. So anyway, I'm just confused as to what's wrong with her. Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[osteoporoosi]

usually this type of behaviour appears because there is something wrong with the water parametres. Could you post them?

 

[ronin]

Water parameters all pretty much normal. 0 ammonia and nitrite, just a touch of nitrate. pH exactly 7. None of the other swords in the tank appear affected at all.

usually this type of behaviour appears because there is something wrong with the water parametres. Could you post them?

 

[osteoporoosi]

How about hardness? Asian bred livebearers are used to very hard, alkaline and sometimes even a bit salty water.

 

[ronin]

My water here is pretty hard. I don't remember exactly what the rating is but I remember it being harder than I would like.

How about hardness? Asian bred livebearers are used to very hard, alkaline and sometimes even a bit salty water.

 

[osteoporoosi]

How is she doing now? What are you feeding her? Any sign of disease?
Maybe the moving stress has gotten to her, especially if she is an imported fish. How did you introdouce her into the tank?

 

[ronin]

Hm, same as usual. Just sorta floating around. She looks fine, no visible sign of disease at least. Still not eating regular tropical fish flakes. Got her from a LFS so don't think she's an import.

Mmm, I just put the bag in my tank for about half an hour and added water from the tank periodically.

How is she doing now? What are you feeding her? Any sign of disease?
Maybe the moving stress has gotten to her, especially if she is an imported fish. How did you introdouce her into the tank?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Its a very controversal debate on wether or not fish get depressed, but many symtoms we would see as signs of depression more than often are symtoms of the fish not physically feeling well- the same goes for happyness, more than often they are just signs of the fish feeling very good in its current enviroment although i personally do believe many fish out there can feel happyness.
Anyhoo...
How long have you had her and is she pregnant by any chance?

 

[osteoporoosi]

Keep up with the water changes, that's practically the best med for everything(avoid vast changes on water parametres). Keep a good eye on her though, hopefully she'll start eating soon.

 

[ronin]

Mmm, just a little over a week now and no, definitely not pregnant.

How long have you had her and is she pregnant by any chance?

 

[Polardbear]

Interesting, one of my female koi swordies starting acting similar to yours a few weeks ago. I'd had her for 6 weeks and she had been fine and then suddenly acting all mopey. She would either slink around on the sand or hang listlessly at the top. Put her in quarentine for a week and a half and she seemed a little better so I thought perhaps the other koi female had been bullying her. I moved her to a different tank and she went back to acting all wierd again. She seemed to be having a lot of difficulties with the strong current in that tank so I decided to set up a real quiet tank and see how she did there. I was going to move her the next morning but somehow in the course of my tank maintenance I unknowingly bumped the temperature up on the heater. The tank had been around 74-76 normally but the next morning was at 80 degrees. Much to my surprise she was cruising around like her old self. That day was "pea" day and when I dropped some in the tank she practically attacked them, she was bumping fish out of the way to get them. I don't think I'd seen her eat in days prior to the peas. I went ahead and set up her own tank that has very little water movement and the water is now at 80 degrees and she's doing much, much better. She's been in it for 4 days now and has stopped slinking and hiding but the only food she gets excited over is peas.

What temperature is your tank at? Is there a lot of current from the filter? I don't normally ever keep my swordies in 80 degrees if I can help it but this girl seems to prefer it.

Try offering her some peas just to see if you can get her to eat. I just microwave a couple of frozen peas in a little water for 30 seconds, let them cool, and then pop them out of their outer skin and mash them up with my finger. The skins are to tough for them so be sure to remove them. You'll also want to siphon up any uneaten bits after a few hours. She's also started showing some interest in frozen daphnia and glassworms.

I'm still not sure what is/was wrong with her but maybe something here will help you with your girl.

Good luck with her.

 

[Polardbear]

Does your female have red eyes? I just read an interesting tidbit in a book that stated that the albino type swordtails do have some vision problems and are happier when kept in a dimmer tank. The tank my one female is in is very dim compared to the tank I took her out of and she is acting a lot happier now. My other two don't seem bothered by the bright lights in the tank they are in. I suppose though that sensitivity to light would vary among individual fish.