Fish Become Spooked

Hi,

This is not about any disease or any such issue but still i am mentioning my tank specs

29 Gallon Tank, bare bottom
3 small Gold Fish
2 Aquaclear HOB
0 ammonia, 10 ppm nitrate

Now the room where my fish are i cleaned about a week back and removed some stuff and the fish had no issue, about 4 days back some friends of mine came and we had 'chitchat' some loud talk in the room...

When the friends left i saw the fish hiding in the corner, i thought they might have been scared, but for days the fish are super spooked , they run way seeing me go rushing here and there, also they are now super spooked by themselves....

They are scared all the time except feeding time in morning...

What can i do, why they have become so scared, there is no direct light or any other reflection to their tank either ...

I feel very bad that they even run away from me, earlier this was not the case, they were totally cool, now they just look scared ...

Kindly guide what to do ...

David

 

is there any plants? they could also be stressed

 

@CanadianFishFan Thanks, Yes there are 4 anubias , but every thing was fine till the party with friends , i am so perplexed

David

 

This may be out of line or way off base but was there alcohol involved during the get together? Could one of your guests think it might be a good idea to see how fish would react to getting drunk without informing you?

I think I would do a very big water change if it is any way possible that it could have happened.

 

I would do a large water change as well. Assuming these are fancy goldfish and not commons/comets, I would also look into getting a 40 gallon breeder in the near future. Your goldfish will need the room.

 

Nitrite wasn't listed, do you have a way to test for that?

 

Sometimes my guppies go though a phase of being spooked. They become almost in a trance where they will stare at nothing in the same place for hours on end sometimes and get really skittish and generally easily surprised.

This lasts for a week and happens every few months or so. No idea what causes it but it passes on its own slowly without issue. I wish the same for you

 

i had that with my guppys, they stared at each other in mid water for 2 hours

 

Maybe they are just super sensitive to a water parameter we can't measure or maybe it's just a guppy thing in general

 

Lots of vibration from laughter, music etc can have a profound affect on our little wet pets. I have also found a bare bottom tank can frighten them too. Not sure why, but it may have something to do with ambient light coming from underneath. It can also make fish lose there bearings because they don't know there position in the tank without substrate. They will eventually get over it, unless there's a lot of parties going on.

 

Oddly enough the guppies in my bare bottom tank never get spooked (and get sick less often) than the ones in my larger and graveled tank.

 

Perhaps it has something to do with the water speed?

The tank my spooked guppies are in has much slower water flow then usual.

 

That's good. Bare bottom is very easy to keep clean. I'm quite sure they appreciate that.

 

My quarantine tank is bare bottom and it completely freaked out clown loaches. They barely left the caves and when they did they huddled in a corner of the tank and wouldn't eat. I added gravel and it changed their behavior overnight.

 

They do! It will have fine black gravel when my guppies have been sold and my pea puffer is shipped in

 

@Dave125g @Mary765 @CanadianFishFan -Thanks, so i did a 80% water change removed some plant leaves that were rotting, cleaned the intake of my HOB , its all perfect...

But the fish , when its feeding time they are normal, an hour after that same spooked behavior, i am going to shift them to 155 gallon by year end , they are not growing fast as they are in a small tank, but i do make sure i keep water quality perfect ....

So should i add some gravel or may be wait for a week more ... kindly suggest ...

David

 

Yeah that sounds exactly what happens to my guppies! I would wait a week or two before you start worrying, and if it goes away then they are just going through the same thing my guppies do.

When my guppies go through their scared phase I tend to keep the room as quiet as possible and their routines as normal as possible (for diet, light and water changes). It seems to reassure them that everything is normal and there is nothing to be afraid of and they slowly come out of the phase to be excited and happy little fishes again