Gemtrox42
Fish Fanatic
Tl;dr: When fish flash several times in a row, what can this be evidence of, and how can it be narrowed down?
Background: 30 gal tank, lightly planted with gravel bottom, mostly hornwart, duckweed, swords and java ferns, lots of driftwood. My fish are 14 cardinals, 5 pygmy corys and cherry shrimp, two adult mollies and around a dozen fry. Water is 75 degrees, hang on back filter so should be well oxygenated. Water parameters are 7.3 pH, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 5, GH 100, KH 100-120. I am using wellwater. I treat the water with aquavitro seed, and aquavitro alpha dechlorinator. Generally, my tank chemistry has been very stable over time, but I have noticed a slight trend towards lower KH (used to be ~140).
So this is going to get a bit complicated, but over the past 2 weeks I have radically changed what I've been putting in my water. Until 2 weeks ago, I was using only salt-softened water, a variety supplements, namely seachem flourish, excel, and iron for my plants, and my tank temperature was at 80 degrees. Since then I have corrected these to what you see above. I am also in the process of increasing my water GH to 300ppm and rehoming everyone other than my mollies to a more suitable tank.
I have noticed my mollies and cardinals flashing on rare occasions since getting them. My understanding is that flashing can be anything from a normal behavior to sign of stress, both of which I imagine probably apply in my case, given the poor water parameters they have been living under. However I noticed one of my molly fry flashing against a small ceramic bowl I use for cory food, doing so 6 or 7 times in rapid succession. Since then I've checked for signs of ich or other external parasites and found none on the fry or any other fish. Hopefully this is not the case, but I wouldn't rule it out, especially if I had some advice from you guys.
Background: 30 gal tank, lightly planted with gravel bottom, mostly hornwart, duckweed, swords and java ferns, lots of driftwood. My fish are 14 cardinals, 5 pygmy corys and cherry shrimp, two adult mollies and around a dozen fry. Water is 75 degrees, hang on back filter so should be well oxygenated. Water parameters are 7.3 pH, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 5, GH 100, KH 100-120. I am using wellwater. I treat the water with aquavitro seed, and aquavitro alpha dechlorinator. Generally, my tank chemistry has been very stable over time, but I have noticed a slight trend towards lower KH (used to be ~140).
So this is going to get a bit complicated, but over the past 2 weeks I have radically changed what I've been putting in my water. Until 2 weeks ago, I was using only salt-softened water, a variety supplements, namely seachem flourish, excel, and iron for my plants, and my tank temperature was at 80 degrees. Since then I have corrected these to what you see above. I am also in the process of increasing my water GH to 300ppm and rehoming everyone other than my mollies to a more suitable tank.
I have noticed my mollies and cardinals flashing on rare occasions since getting them. My understanding is that flashing can be anything from a normal behavior to sign of stress, both of which I imagine probably apply in my case, given the poor water parameters they have been living under. However I noticed one of my molly fry flashing against a small ceramic bowl I use for cory food, doing so 6 or 7 times in rapid succession. Since then I've checked for signs of ich or other external parasites and found none on the fry or any other fish. Hopefully this is not the case, but I wouldn't rule it out, especially if I had some advice from you guys.
