My fish are STILL flashing after PraziPro and Paraguard

I have been dealing with flashing in my 29 gallon freshwater tank for about a month now. I have 6 Hillstream Loaches, 8 Spotted Blue-Eyed Rainbowfish, 9 Cardinal Tetras, 2 Apistogramma agasizzi and various snails. The tank is heavily planted, 0/0/0-5, pH around 7.0 and my temperature is at 75 F. I use Seachem Prime as a water conditioner and about once a week I use Aquarium Co-Ops Easy Green plant fertilizer. I have an Aquaclear 50, large sponge filter and an Aquaclear 20 powerhead that also has a filter attachment.

Initially, it was only the Rainbowfish who I started to see flashing against the plants, but since they were the newest addition to the tank I figured they were acclimating. After about a week, I decided to dose with PraziPro (let it stay in for 7 days, then performed a water change). No change. I kept up with my weekly 30-50% water changes and monitored all of the fish which is when I began to see the flashing in some of the tetras. I'd also say that the loaches flash because they seem to kind of spazz out sometimes, but I'm also thinking that could be behavioral. Fast forward about 2 weeks to this past Tuesday where I began dosing with Paraguard. The first dose was 5 mL because I wanted to see how the loaches would react and they were totally fine. I upped the dose to 12 mL and have been dosing every 24 hours. STILL FLASHING! I performed a 50% water change yesterday where I also gravel vacuumed (just in case it's Ich?) but I have not seen any white spots for the past few weeks. I've seen some of the fish defecate and none of it has been white either.

Could it possibly just be particles in the water? I'm going to continue dosing with the Paraguard, how much longer would be recommended? (Two weeks or more?)

Any insight?

 

Yes, particles can be the reason for flashing. In my tank I have a lot of leaf litter, when I do water changes or my Apisto thinks he has to chase some cardinals, things get stirred up. And sometimes the fish flash because it stuck to their slime coat or in their gills.
Is there a similar situation in your tank? It could also be chemicals or water parameter changes.

But just in case it may be a disease or parasites: Get the closest diagnose possible and treat - if needed - just with a specialized targeted med. Those are usually only in the tank for a few days and then removed. Minimal invasive. Broadband meds are money thrown out the window and fish stressed, sometimes for weeks, for nothing.

Also, flashing doesn't occur with inner parasites (referring to that mentioning of poop being normal.

 

Yes, particles can be the reason for flashing. In my tank I have a lot of leaf litter, when I do water changes or my Apisto thinks he has to chase some cardinals, things get stirred up. And sometimes the fish flash because it stuck to their slime coat or in their gills.
Is there a similar situation in your tank? It could also be chemicals or water parameter changes.

But just in case it may be a disease or parasites: Get the closest diagnose possible and treat - if needed - just with a specialized targeted med. Those are usually only in the tank for a few days and then removed. Minimal invasive. Broadband meds are money thrown out the window and fish stressed, sometimes for weeks, for nothing.

Also, flashing doesn't occur with inner parasites (referring to that mentioning of poop being normal.

Thank you. I assumed that either PraziPro or Paraguard would treat any ectoparasites. I don’t have leaf litter, but there’s definitely some natural debris that falls from my plants (especially the floating ones).

Another question because you mentioned your apistos chasing your cardinals; my male apisto has been relentlessly chasing my loaches even if they aren’t in his “territory.” I just ordered some more hiding spots to see if I can break the tank up some more, even though there’s a lot of plant coverage.

 

More caves means the territory will be extended.
My Apisto only chases the cardinals when they swim below a certain line and he mostly does it after feeding bottomfeeder food, defending the feeding grounds.
He sadly killed the female about a month after I got them, so he's on his own. I don't want to know what happens if he would breed.

 

More caves means the territory will be extended.
My Apisto only chases the cardinals when they swim below a certain line and he mostly does it after feeding bottomfeeder food, defending the feeding grounds.
He sadly killed the female about a month after I got them, so he's on his own. I don't want to know what happens if he would breed.

Oh great. I thought maybe if there were more hiding spots then the aggression would decrease. He killed your female? I didn’t know that could happen but my female is always hiding I rarely see her maybe I should rehome this guy.

 

They would need wood and plants for hiding. Not every fish uses caves even if offered. For hillstream loaches also cravisses between rocks would be the better choice as a hiding spot. Especially as you can build those so that the apisto doesn't fit in there.

No worries, I accidently got a rarer species of Apisto that is normally not available here. Not comparable likely.

 

They would need wood and plants for hiding. Not every fish uses caves even if offered. For hillstream loaches also cravisses between rocks would be the better choice as a hiding spot. Especially as you can build those so that the apisto doesn't fit in there.

No worries, I accidently got a rarer species of Apisto that is normally not available here. Not comparable likely.

This is the layout of my tank thus far. It’s hard to tell but on the right hand side is a log cave where the female hides and the male is mostly territorial of, however, sometimes just because he feels like it he’ll venture over to the rocks where the loaches are to push them around

 

Yeah, the layout for Apistos is very important. Try to build a structure in the middle of the tank. It should reach from front to back and as high as possible. a real barrier. That and plant thickets are things I found very helpful, sadly it was too late.
I build a barrier like this:
Imagine many more Anubias and other epiphytes on it, I removed those after the female was killed as I wanted to go more in the direction of a biotope. It was basically all-green and no way to look through it.

 

Yeah, the layout for Apistos is very important. Try to build a structure in the middle of the tank. It should reach from front to back and as high as possible. a real barrier. That and plant thickets are things I found very helpful, sadly it was too late.
I build a barrier like this:
Imagine many more Anubias and other epiphytes on it, I removed those after the female was killed as I wanted to go more in the direction of a biotope. It was basically all-green and no way to look through it.

The purpose of it being in the middle of the tank is to block lines of sight? I know it varies fish to fish but I had heard apistos were fairly peaceful... this guy definitely isn’t. I’ll play around with the placement of things... would it be okay if I need to to move him to his own tank and keep the female in there or do they need a mate to survive?

 

Yes, blocking the line of sight. Always a good thing to use for structuring a tank
You can keep them alone, though they tend to be bored alone. If you have the legitimate suspicion they might kill each other it's better to have a second tank at hand.
In a correctly structured tank usually relatively peaceful among each other. But most people mean they don't chase other fish much around like other cichlids. And I can tell, in contrast to many other cichlids they are peaceful.

 

Yes, blocking the line of sight. Always a good thing to use for structuring a tank
You can keep them alone, though they tend to be bored alone. If you have the legitimate suspicion they might kill each other it's better to have a second tank at hand.
In a correctly structured tank usually relatively peaceful among each other. But most people mean they don't chase other fish much around like other cichlids. And I can tell, in contrast to many other cichlids they are peaceful.

Thanks for all of your insight, I really appreciate it. If it persists I might move the pair.