Harlequin Rasbora....natural Behaviour....

[hollyp0p]

Hi, I've had my harleys now about 2 months, maybe a bit more, I've noticed a lot of their weird mannerisms and mating type rituals, I currently only have 3 in my main tank, I lost 2 in QT, and have 3 more new in quarantine to be added soon.

However there is some occasions where a couple of the harleys in the main tank will start swimming irratically in jerky motions very fast, they don't bang into anything, so I'm wondering is this another part of the harlequins complex communication.....as I've seen them do weird things but I know it's natural......or is this something I should be worried about?

They live with one male betta, who does now and then like to chase the harleys, but never harms them.....and a pitbull pleco, who never pays any attention to any other fish.

Any help would be most appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[hollyp0p]

update with more info:

all fish are coloured up nicely and eating, all loosely shoaling as normal too, I have no yet seen any of them do the skittish manouvre yet today, only witnessed the territorial 'dances' between the two I believe are male.

this is partly why I think the weird actions may just be down to fish behaviour, as they won't do it for ages, then like last night they'll do it a few times in a row.....then nothing again.

My water stats are fine, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate about 7 and pH 7.2 (is normal for my tank), and I performed a water change earlier as it's been about a week since the last one.

 

[WILDER]

Not sure to be honest, but when fish swim in a jerky movement it can be a sign of flukes.

 

[hollyp0p]

Not sure to be honest, but when fish swim in a jerky movement it can be a sign of flukes.

are there any other symptoms to watch out for, anything that would confirm if it happened to be flukes?
If so what treats flukes, I currently have myxazin and esha 2000 in my fishy meds cabinet

 

[WILDER]

Never noticed ny harley swimming in a jerky movement.
Signs of gills and skin flukes are.
Opaque body with excess slime.
Pale gills with excess slime, or red and inflamed.
Flicking and rubbing against objects.
Erratic swimming.
Swimming in a jerky movement.
Laboured breathing.
Can lose weight to flukes.
Sores on the body of the fish.
Spitting food out.
http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?...products_id=138

 

[hollyp0p]

Never noticed ny harley swimming in a jerky movement.
Signs of gills and skin flukes are.
Opaque body with excess slime.
Pale gills with excess slime, or red and inflamed.
Flicking and rubbing against objects.
Erratic swimming.
Swimming in a jerky movement.
Laboured breathing.
Can lose weight to flukes.
Sores on the body of the fish.
Spitting food out.
[URL="http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?...products_id=138"]http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?...products_id=138[/URL]

i see also sterazin is for flukes, is that any good?
When they 'spazz' out they sort of wiggle eratically from the face first, sometimes dart about....other than this there's no opaqueness, no slime, nothing else but wiggling about
I'll keep an eye on them, does protozin do flukes too?

 

[WILDER]

I agree just keep an eye on them.
Waterlife meds are not that good on flukes.
There wormer plus but never used it.

 

[hollyp0p]

I agree just keep an eye on them.
Waterlife meds are not that good on flukes.
There wormer plus but never used it.

how do you think they could have gotten it if they have it?
Can flukes come in on plants, or possibly because i use same gravel siphon for both tanks, maybe i didn't wash it one time or something?

 

[WILDER]

Most fish carry a few flukes it like dog and cats with fleas.
It when a fish get stressed they start to do the damage.

 

[hollyp0p]

Most fish carry a few flukes it like dog and cats with fleas.
It when a fish get stressed they start to do the damage.

ahh ok....i'll keep an eye, you'd think they'd have gotten it whilst in the QT when it was having all the troubles, then again it's not 100% they have anything wrong, and all other fish are fine, i kept panicking they were getting whitespot, but its where the harleys fins glitter under the tank light, makes them look like white spot, but then they turn so you can see the fin without light on it and it's fine...lol....they're very pretty, much more colourful now in the main tank!

 

[WILDER]

I wouldn't say it was flukes just yet even though they are darting and swimming oddly.
I would of expected flicking and rubbing.
What was last in the qt tank.

 

[hollyp0p]

I wouldn't say it was flukes just yet even though they are darting and swimming oddly.
I would of expected flicking and rubbing.
What was last in the qt tank.

they were in there until about 3 weeks ago now i think, now there are 3 more harleys in there and another pitbull pleco, they all seem 100% fine

 

[WILDER]

Ok I get you now.
Just keep an eye on the harley that are swimming in a jerky movement.
Good luck.
A good fluke article.
http/article.dphnet.com/cat-02/flukes1.shtml

 

[hollyp0p]

Ok I get you now.
Just keep an eye on the harley that are swimming in a jerky movement.
Good luck.
A good fluke article.
[URL="http/article.dphnet.com/cat-02/flukes1.shtml"]http/article.dphnet.com/cat-02/flukes1.shtml[/URL]

thanks wilder....owoooh it says salt can be used to treat, I successfully treated ich with salt before.....maybe I can just up the salt a bit for the time being and see what happens, less stressful than meds

 

[WILDER]

Some sites say salt dosn't do a thing with flukes, some say it does, so to be honest I don't no what to say.