Fish scraping through dec and gravel

[G_Sharky]

I've noticed that my Blue Acara would sometimes scrape his gills through the dec and gravel, He doesn't do it a lot maybe i'll see him do it once a day and it's been going on for 1 and half weeks now. There are no spots visible, so from my previous experience with ICH there should be a breakout by now also not all my fish is doing this except for the gold severum which I only saw him scrape once and never again. However my pleco seems to be acting strange he is somewhat really active even the day, he spends most of his time swimming up and down the glass near my filter. My tank is fairly new(6 weeks) and was currently cycled untill I add the cichlids which kinda screw up my parameters bumping my Nitrites up to 0.1 again. What should i do about the scraping i really don't wanna use med as it might affect my beneficial bacteria and even harm most of my fish...

 

[crazie.eddie]

If it's the gills, then it may have some worms in it's gills or could still be a sign of ich or some other kind of parasite. What other fish are in the tanks? I would perform a 30% water change, and 10%-15% water change on a daily basis. If you have aquarium salt, use it in the tank as well and raise the temp to about 80 degrees F. I would do this slowly, like 1 degree per day. Hold off on any meds until you know exactly what you have.

What other fish do you have in your tank? What size is your tank? What type of filtration do you have? What are it's tankmates?

 

[G_Sharky]

The fish is on my sig, and i'm using and Aqua Clear 300 cartridge filter

 

[crazie.eddie]

The scratching could also be a sign of high ammonia. Your filter is rated up to 30 gallons. Unfortunately, cichlids and pl*cos are very messy fish. Your nitrites going up was a definite sign. Perform a few small water changes (up to 15%) per day. Get a larger filter, one that is rated for at least a 50 gallon tank or just get another Aquaclear 300.

 

[G_Sharky]

I check for ammonia and it's nearly at 0, I don't think that my filter is small because it's says that this filter is good for aquariums up to 100 US gallons and it pumps 300 gallons per hour....I didn't know that cichlids are as messy as the pleco. In terms of stocking would I be okay if i add a couple of angel fish in my tank?