# Fish acting strange



## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

i have been moving around fish yesterday just took out one and then added another but now all of the fish are swimming towards an object and seem to be bouncing off the decor while going on their side. they almost seem to be scrathing their side with the decor all of them are doing it and wondering if anyone has seen this before and you could help me out if their in trouble i would like to help them quick


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## cossie (Dec 19, 2010)

if what u meen is the fish are swimming up to an object and flicking there bodied on it this can often mean Make a 25% water change every day until the symptoms ease. The tank is now way overcrowded and the bacteria balance may not be able to stabilize so toxins are poisoning them and burning their gills and skin. You can even do the changes twice a day. As long as the new water is the same temperature as the old and you use a water conditioner it will not stress them too much and will not delay or halt the bacteria balance. Keep doing the changes until nitrites and ammonia are down to zero and stay there. Note that it is "nitrItes" and not "nitrAtes" that are so toxic. Nitrates can be up to 40 ppm. Nitrites must be zero.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Or, it can be ich before you can see it. Just to be safe, raise the temperature to about 86˚ and a little bit of AQUARIUM salt. It'll cure ich in no time and the fish normally don't mind.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

there are better ich cures, search for them. Agree with the check the water, check or ich.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

All natural ones? I don't like to use meds.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Ich salt and heat cure are real. But they are more exacting than "a little salt". A little salt won't do anything and 86 will just make ich reproduce faster and infections worse. Do your homework. Some fish can't take the salt, others can't take the heat, so don't assume 'it won't hurt'. There's an all natural method where you move fish from container to container, but the fish have to be large and hardy enough to survive ich for days without meds. Read the stickies in the disease section and search old threads with the advanced search feature. Meds works too, but some will kill certain fish, some will stain your stuff, some will hurt the 'cycle'. Do your homework and do it quick because fish with ich should be on some sort of treatment.


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

so its for sure ich?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Almost certainly. The fish are indeed scratching themselves.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Thanks for the call emc7. I always assume everyone has the same fish and definitions as I do. I guess I should work on that... :-(


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

added a tiny dose of rid ich with some aquarium salt and the fish seem to be acting the way they had been before so thats promising but my loach i had in that tank and moved him and he is acting very strange swimming in circles along the glass for hours


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## AvocadoPuffDude (Jan 20, 2011)

I rarely have fish that suffer ich. It's been my experience by the time a fish gets ich, the water conditions have to be terrible for a while. Stop over-feeding and over-crowding, and the ich won't be such a problem.


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## AvocadoPuffDude (Jan 20, 2011)

Salt? Salt belongs on the dinner table, not the freshwater aquarium!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

fish from chain stores are prone to ich, usually in the first month of the tank's setup. When someone has a problem, telling them its their own fault doesn't help the fish. Don't be trollish.


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## tiggerbarb (Jan 17, 2011)

Ya I have noticed that all the fish that i have gotten from petsmart all had ich, and the ones from the other fish store which were in the same tank as the ones with the ich didn't show any white spots. I am now hopefully ich free.( both tanks only had ich once)


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