Itchy Fish?!?!?!?!

[Tommy Gun]

I noticed today that my cichlids seem to be 'itching' themselves on the rocks. It is almost like they are swimming sidways to rub against the rock. It is not happening a whole lot, but it is still weird.

Is this a sign of disease or infection? It seems like it is only a couple of the fish so if it is a sign of something going on, do I need to quarenteen these fish?

[imported616]

this is a weird thing and i dunno why some fish do it but i have noticed the same exact thing with a guppie i had, about a week after it started it died of dropsy.

[liv2padl]

it 'can' be a sign of external parasites such as early ich or gill flukes. in addition, irritants in the water such as heavy metals can cause fish to itch. often, adding some aquarium salt to the water can help ... about 1 tsp per gallon.

[wobble]

I think you're talking about flashing. They do this when they are showing dominance. If it's just occasionally, there's nothing to worry about. If most or all of the fish are doing this alot, there's probably something wrong....as liv2padl said, parasites and such. This also happens if they go through a quick change in water parameters. (quick reduction or increase in ph, etc.)

[Tommy Gun]

I think this behavior is really limited to one or two fish. The way my tank is set up at the moment, there are 'caves' around the back half of the tank and the fish that are doing this are the ones who seem to have established a territory in the middle, and some what larger caves.

Still, is there are preventative measure I can take? I have put aquarium salt in the tank when I first got these fish, about a week ago. How often can I add it? The 'box' the salt is in is not really clear at all on how often.

I also have ICH 'tabs' but I dont really like them since they stain everything for a long time. I dont really think that I can just add this medicine 'just in case', but let me know if I am wrong.

Thanks for the guidance!

[wobble]

I don't think you have a problem. It sounds like a dominance thing. Don't add anything to your tank if you don't have to.

[khombre]

Have you checked your water parameters lately? Care to post what your levels are? :confused:

[Tommy Gun]

Surely, I just redid my testing for this tank (a week ago I had huge ammonia problem, but I think it was a bad test)

The water parameters are 7.6 Ph, Oppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrate, and 0.25ppm Nitrite. This is the levels about three days after about 40 to 50% water change (On saturday).

I have been watching a lot again today and for the past hour at least, I havent noticed anything obvious like I saw before. The fish are doing a lot of digging in the 'caves' and so I think they may have gotten things straightened out pretty well as far as territories.

So, one more question comes to mind. Territories...How do I ensure that I do not mess up the established territories when I clean this tank? My schedule usually is a 20 or 30% water change weekly (saturdays), with every other week getting a really good substrate cleaning. So, on the weeks I dont vac out the gravel, i tend to get what I can see and leave the rest. The problem would be then that when I do more thourough cleanings, I run the risk of 'redecorating' a touch. Could this mess up these territories and create more aggression, or am I just thinking too much about all of this?

[liv2padl]

0.25ppm Nitrite if this is your level AFTER a 50 % water change, you've got problems and i suspect the flashing was in fact due to your water quality.

depending on your stocking density (which you've yet to state, nor the tank size these cichlids are in), a 20-30 percent water change is probably not enough. all my cichlid tanks are understocked and i do 50-65 percent water changes weekly.

as for rearranging the rocks and caves, i'd strive to put them back as close to sthe original configuration as possible to avoid unneccessary stress on the fish.

[khombre]

As liv said, your nitrites could be irritating the fish. Any level above 0ppm are not good for them. Do another partial water change. Try to get your nitrite levels to zero. Good luck :)

[wobble]

Yikes! Did you cycle your tank before adding the fish? If this is an established tank, how often do you do water changes? What filtration do you have? Not trying to be nosey, just trying to help ya out before ya lose some fish.

[Tommy Gun]

This tank is 55 gallon and is very well established. It has held other fish for about 6 months before I got these fish. There are 9 fish in the tank, all about 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches long. Like i said, I have been having some weird test results using my current test kit and I am currently looking around for a test kit that I can also test for water hardness and all that.

The reason that I do my water changes the way I do is because I have been having some problems with 'sludge' in the filter. I dont know how else to explain it, but it is something that happens during summer. The sludge is almost like a whole bunch of flake food get wet and is clogging things up, but until a week ago, I hardly ever used any flake food as the previous occupants were eating frozen food almost exclusively.

I bought this tank as one of those 'kits' from Walmart and so the filter is basically nothing special, however, I have also added an aquaclear 200 filter and so I should be filtering something in the range of 400 gallons of water an hour.

So, basically I am forced to rinse the filter media about once a week, which I do in the water I take from the tank. I was advised to do this from another thread in this forum and to limit the amount of water I take from the tank so that I am not completely depleating the bacteria levels.

If this is way off base, let me know so that I can change my methods. I am still very much learning about this hobby and how to keep things going well. Like I said before though, it is not really like an itching epidemic or anything and is really limited to about two fish in the tank right now. I will go out and get me a better test kit today and I will let you know if anything is different.

[Cathy G]

I get that sludge in my filters too - I think it is an algae. Maybe too many nutrients in the water - I swish that black screen like filter media in my dirty water when I do a weekly water change.

If there are just a couple of fish and they are the flashing ones, and they seem to flash on the same rocks, then it probably is a territorial staking out thing.
Unless you added some un Qt'd fish which could have brought something in with it.

I wouldn't bother getting one of those master test kits - just buy the individual tests, I think Aquarium Pharmacueticals makes pretty good ones. Those master kits are pricey, and you end up using up the most important tests anyway. (Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, gh/kh.)

Hope all will be well,
Cathy

[rmcder]

I bought this tank as one of those 'kits' from Walmart and so the filter is basically nothing special, however, I have also added an aquaclear 200 filter and so I should be filtering something in the range of 400 gallons of water an hour.
I'd recommend two things to you... Firstly, keep the filter you got with the tank as a backup. Secondly, I would recommend that you get either another of the same size Aquaclear or the next size up and use both. I have a 75g tank and use an Aquaclear 110 (formerly 500) with an Eheim 2217 cannister. I think part of your clogging problem is that you are just on the edge of what you need for filtration. Your clogging is probably algae, and you can reduce that by keeping the water clear and the lights off as much as possible.

[Tommy Gun]

It is hard to say about the quarenteen thing, since I didnt really have to do that. All the fish that I have now, I brought home together, and they all came from the same tank at the LFS.

I have looked into bigger and better filters and I would like to get into an external filter or canister filter. I am a little leery about the noise though as I dont have too much space and it would have to sit in the tank stand. Is this an issue or are they pretty quiet? I am constantly struggling to keep my air pump quiet!

I think that the algea growth in the filter is really something that has to do with the weather. It is sort of hard to explain, but I am forced to have this tank get either a lot of sunlight either in the morning or night as the sun comes up or down. It is next to a large sliding glass door, so the best option is to put it on the side that we cant go out of, meaning it gets sunlight at the end of the day. I have a curtain on the window that protects most of the tank, but there is about a half an hour in which I cannot do much to keep the sun out unless I make my living room look all tacky and stuff.

Also, as for the canister filters, is there a way that I can hide the intake? I really sort of hate having the two intake tubes in the tank that I have right now, not that its a big issue, but just my perfectionist personality I guess.

[Cathy G]

I have mine hidden in two ways; first if the intake is black I use a black background. Second, if it is clear, I hide it behind driftwood or a thick plant.
Hope this helps, where in Wisconsin are you?
Cathy
In Wisconsin

[Tommy Gun]

Thanks for the tip! I live in Port Washington. I love it up here, there are not many good fish places up here though. It seems like there are a lot of 'big box' pet stores around here who dont know much about what they are selling. Otherwise it is the really small 'mom and pop' stores that might be knowledgeable, but they still want to make the sale more than anything.

Where are you from and do you know any good places to look around? I tend to stick to the bigger 'fish only' pet stores in Milwaukee.

[Cathy G]

Oh my goodness, the north side of Milwaukee has the BEST lfs! It's Hoffer's Tropic Life. They have a large selection, good advisors and they care about their fish. They also will NOT sell painted, dyed and mutilated fish. They even have seperate types of tanks set up for species. Their rams and SA fish are in 6.5 ph and soft water. Their africans are in higher ph hard water....
They are good and I plan on selling my ram fry to them and working with them.

This store is so great I can get microworm cultures from them and give them some of mine if theirs go bad...

They sell other pets, reptiles, lizards etc, so you can find their address under pet stores, not fish stores.

I really like those folks, sigh, for me it is longer drive. I live over in the Waukesha/Pewaukee area.

I am on my way outta town for the day, but let me know if you need their phone number I can get if for you later.

Cathy