ongoing odd behavior

[rohai]

I've had freshwater tropical fish for many years and this one has me stumped.

I transferred some fish home from tank at work, brought an established filter home with them. So in my 20 gallon home tank I had my dwarf pleco, a plat gourami, and a cherry barb. All seemed fine for about a month. Then I went and purchased 4 gold barbs, after about a week they started rubbing against tank decorations. They weren't going berserk with itching but something was obviously wrong. I had my water tested, results were fine. I didn't see any parasites on them and appetite was good, I treated them with Coppersafe. it helped but didn't stop the problem, I then treated with malachite green, again it helped while the treatment was given, but afterwards they started rubbing again. Still no visible parasites. I was advised to treat with malachite green again, same results. At that point it had now been three months since this all started, no deaths, good appetites. So my local fish store suggested adding freshwater salt and raising the temp from 75 to 79. After two months of that the behavior has almost stopped completely, but every once in a while one of the gold barbs will rub just once or twice then stop. So, I'm wondering if I should continue the salt, what to do with the temp, etc. I was thinking they had ick, but i have never seen ick continue on for so long without a single death. Has anyone seen this before?

 

[Ozalie]

My yellow labs rub against rocks/gravel once in awhile.They've never had ick or any problem.Come to find out others have the same thing going on in thier tanks! It seems to be something they do and I no longer worry.I don't see why labs would be the only fish that rub,if thier eating and seem healthy,I'd leave them alone.

 

[rohai]

hmm

No other ideas??? Well, perhaps it is as odd to you guys as it is to me, like I said I've been keeping FW tropicals for many years now and have never seen anything like this.

 

[Twilight]

Some of my fish rub themselves against a plant or terra cotta pot..... if yours are eating and healthy and still living then I say they are fine. They just do it because of some natural animal/fishy instinct.

 

[Sharyl C]

I wouldn't worry too much about it - but continue to be observant. I would also keep a low level of salt in the tank, but gradually return the tank temp to normal (if you haven't already). Barbs and most freshwater fish actually do better with some salt in the water, and its a great preventative for other diseases.

There are quite a few ectoparasites that can create similar itching/flashing symptoms like ich does. Although many are treated the same way - there is usually a difference in duration or concentration of medication that is effective in each individual case. Many require repetitive treatments that are synchronized with the hatching of parasite eggs or cysts. Very few chemicals will kill eggs/cysts and are only effective on the adults. There is also an ever growing level of resistance to chemical treatments.

Sorry if this was a little rambling.