Christine

I recently noticed a couple of days ago that my clown catfish, (who acts strange to begin with) has started to swim and then jerk to one side then the other. Today I noticed that my sharks and Gourmani are also doing the same thing. They also seem to be brushing against their plants and other objects in the tank. I looked at them with a magnifying glass and I do not see white spots or anything out of the ordinary on their bodies. I've been searching on line and came across this site. Can anyone help a newbie out?

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore! sorry your fishies are acting weird..first thing we need to know are the water parimeters...ammonnia, nitrites and nitrates...it almost sounds like theirs ammonia in there

Christine

Nitrite at 1.0, amonia at .025 and PH at7.2. I checked everything yesterday and the Nitrite was fine. I have a bottle of EasyBalance with Nitraban, should I use that?

Shawnie

I would do DAILY water changes treating the tap water with prime ...change at least 50% a day until your ammonia, nitrites are 0 and nitrates under 20..you are going thru a cycle... the tank is overstocked as one of mine is, so you may have to do daily changes forever...goldfish are big poo'rs and need at least a 30 gallon alone..as well as oscars are big poo'rs as well..but im sure you know all this....so for now, its a must changing the water daily.....otherwise slowly the fish will die off..sorry goodluck!

Christine

Thanks Shawnie, I'm off to change my water.

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.

If the erratic behavior continues after you start using Prime and doing water changes daily, let us know since it could indicate parasites or some kind.

Calab

"Flashing" fish means that something is irritating their skin. It could be chemicals in the water or they may have an illness.

Watch them carefully and do some water changes.

patricia

I just bought a male guppy and he is going up and down the tank next to the glass. Plese may i know if some something is wrong. The ph is ok.
In the fish tank tank I have
3 male guppies (including the new one)
2 female mollies
1male red sword tail
2 female sword tail
It is 30 gallon tank.

Barbrella

Christine, I"m afraid your tank is grossly overstocked, not to mention that the goldfish don't belong there and need 20 gallons each just for them.

You need to either buy a much bigger tank - at least 150 gallons - or remove most of the fish in there.