Raskolnikov,
Give some time, they may settle down. they are a rather spastic fish anyhow, when they aren't hiding. other things that I've found are of course ICH, high solids levels, salt or other items in the water. the classic stress sign for pictus is up and down swimming at the corners or against the glass. this is an indicator of something wrong at some level. if their movements are predominately along the bottom (not up and down), even erratic movement is pretty normal. They will acclimate fairly well to hard water, but it takes them a while sometimes. they never do seem to get used to salt in water, but I have not tried long term salt use, only salt for treatment which evidently does bother them some, but doesn't cause nearly the stress that meds do.
Something else to remember is that ICH is virtually invisible on a pictus, especially at the speeds they travel. I have watched these fish for hours, and suddenly realized they are covered head to toe with ich, which I never saw for the first 3-4 hours of observation. Combine that with their propensity for ich in the first place, and suprises are pretty comon with these fish when they are new especially.
Just some things to watch for especially with new fish you just brought home.
All in all, the spotted pictus is still my favorite cat, and I seldom have a big fish tank without them.
Dave
Give some time, they may settle down. they are a rather spastic fish anyhow, when they aren't hiding. other things that I've found are of course ICH, high solids levels, salt or other items in the water. the classic stress sign for pictus is up and down swimming at the corners or against the glass. this is an indicator of something wrong at some level. if their movements are predominately along the bottom (not up and down), even erratic movement is pretty normal. They will acclimate fairly well to hard water, but it takes them a while sometimes. they never do seem to get used to salt in water, but I have not tried long term salt use, only salt for treatment which evidently does bother them some, but doesn't cause nearly the stress that meds do.
Something else to remember is that ICH is virtually invisible on a pictus, especially at the speeds they travel. I have watched these fish for hours, and suddenly realized they are covered head to toe with ich, which I never saw for the first 3-4 hours of observation. Combine that with their propensity for ich in the first place, and suprises are pretty comon with these fish when they are new especially.
Just some things to watch for especially with new fish you just brought home.
All in all, the spotted pictus is still my favorite cat, and I seldom have a big fish tank without them.
Dave
) and the fact that the two 4-lines love to beat up on the spotted. they also like to push around my raphael cats (2 spotted, 1 striped) but alot of good that does them, heh heh. the raphs are not bothered by it at all.... they usually dont even respond.
