Scratching (flashing) & erratic behavior

[Gel]

Hello

Do otherwise healthy fish sometimes scratch (flashing)?

Do otherwise healthy fish sometimes just act erratically ie. dart forward (individually) all of a sudden in a random direction?

I have a large colony of one species of fish and I witness this behaviour at least once a day.

There are no fatalities found, no signs of external parasites or disease. There are no obvious indicators of internal parasites.

Water parameters are spot on.

Fish are eating.

Fish are breeding.

They seem content.

 

[itiwhetu]

What are the fish, Photos of the fish and your tank are helpful

 

[Gel]

What are the fish, Photos of the fish and your tank are helpful

Daisy’s Blue Rice Fish

 

[itiwhetu]

You say your parameters are spot on, exactly what are they please.

 

[Sgooosh]

My guppies do that.
Whenever they’re sleeping and I tell them it’s time to eat some get startled and zoom around the tank
Funny little guys they ar

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Hello

Do otherwise healthy fish sometimes scratch (flashing)?

Do otherwise healthy fish sometimes just act erratically ie. dart forward (individually) all of a sudden in a random direction?

I have a large colony of one species of fish and I witness this behaviour at least once a day.

There are no fatalities found, no signs of external parasites or disease. There are no obvious indicators of internal parasites.

Water parameters are spot on.

Fish are eating.

Fish are breeding.

They seem content.

Scratching usually is a symptom of presence of flukes (skin or gill flukes). Gill flukes can slowly kill your fish.
Did any of your fish died? At final stage of gill flukes infection, fish will breathe very fast as the flukes damaged the gills and make them unable to breathe.
You can use Praziquantel or Wormer plus(ingredient: Flubendazole) for 1.5-2 months(probably). Dosage must be high enough to kill them. Some people use Potassium Permanganate to kill flukes but it won't be able to destroy their eggs which can last up to 1 month or longer.
The gill flukes in some of my tanks have become resistant to Praziquantel and I find that Flubendazole is more effective.

SimplyDiscus.com: Gill and Skin Flukes by Ardan Huck

Flukes are a parasite. There are two main families of flukes affecting discus. Gyrodactylidea is a fluke which usually attacks the skin. Dactylogyridea family of Flukes is an egg laying fluke and live mainly on the gills.

www.simplydiscus.com

Darting could be due to a few reasons... high ammonia or nitrite or something else.

 

[Gel]

0 ammonia
0 nitrites
Undetectable nitrates

No casualties have been found during maintenance.

I have heard the theory that fish just sometimes get itchy or irratated like many animals including ourselves do and that it is not always an indicator of illness. In other words, it is normal.

 

[itiwhetu]

I was interested in your pH value. As pH sometimes causes this type of reaction.

 

[Gel]

pH is about 6.8 to 7.0

Re: Gill parasites
Gills appear normal with no damage.
No labored breathing.
Breathing rate appears normal relative to the size and species of the fish ie. A large cichlid would generally breath at a slower/deeper rate than a guppy.

 

[itiwhetu]

How many plants do you have with these guys. Maybe a photo of the whole tank would help

 

[Colin_T]

Video of fish behaving erratically?

Fish rub on objects if there is a water quality problem or they have external parasites. If you can't see anything on them and they are rubbing, it could be velvet.

If you shine a torch on the fish when the tank lights are off, see if any fish have a yellow/ gold sheen on their body. If they do, then they have velvet (an external protozoan parasite). You can also use a camera with the flash on, to photograph fish after dark and it will show up any velvet.

Velvet can be treated with heat (30C/ 86F) for a couple of weeks or at least 1 week after the gold sheen has gone. Velvet can take a month or more to get rid of with heat and copper or Malachite Green (aka Victoria Green) can kill it quicker (within 2 weeks). however, these medications are quite toxic. Copper will kill any shrimp or snails in the tank. Malachite green is carcinogenic (causes cancer) and should be handled with care.

 

[Sunnyspots]

My male gudgeon had a few rubs one day. It was only 3 or 4 times and never repeated, just like an itch as you say. Perhaps they can get an itch occasionally. It would just need a sensory nerve to fire without there being an external stimulus.

 

[Gel]

Very difficult to grab a video as it doesn't always happen or constantly happen.

No signs of a sheen from velvet.