Anna_&_Chris Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 Ive got malawi cichlids,peacocks only. I notice that some of them rub themselves on the coral or even on the ground,like they scratching,and also sometimes they will shake a lil and quick like they trying to shake something off. What is it does anyone know? is it something to worry about or just a lil bacteria that will go away,they did it b4 but then stoped for a couple months and now one of them is doing that again... any help would be muchly apreciated Also notice some of the fry do that too,but not much,only saw it once... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paekakboyz Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 sounds as though they are 'flashing' which is when they rub themselves against the substrate, plants, ornaments (anything really) and sometimes shake or twitch. It can be an indication that your ammonia levels are high (test and perhaps try a 30-50% water change) or that they have some sort of parasite. Possibly could be flukes (little parasites that live either in the gills) or on the scales of fish) as well. I think they may even act that way with the onset of ich too? search the site for Flukes and/or flashing and you should find some threads that have more info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caper Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 I recently posted about my tiger barbs flashing. Sure enough, when I checked my water my ammonia was up. I did some water changes and my ammonia is back to 0. Still have some flashing going on but not as much, so time will tell if that was why mine were flashing. Plus, they had no other "visible" signs of anything. So, perhaps you should check your parameters and some water changes like paekakboyz suggested. Caper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johannes Visser Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 sounds as though they are 'flashing' which is when they rub themselves against the substrate, plants, ornaments (anything really) and sometimes shake or twitch. It can be an indication that your ammonia levels are high (test and perhaps try a 30-50% water change) or that they have some sort of parasite. Possibly could be flukes (little parasites that live either in the gills) or on the scales of fish) as well. I think they may even act that way with the onset of ich too? search the site for Flukes and/or flashing and you should find some threads that have more info Sounds about right ! :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna_&_Chris Posted January 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 yea mite be! totally forgot about ammonia test! lol so water change should get rid of ammonia? i actually recently had a massive water change like 50 percent if not more.. but thanx for help anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna_&_Chris Posted February 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 Hey everyone again, a lil update, did ammonia test its perfectly fine.. means its not there heh, treated for ich\white spot ... notice that other fish stoped scratching .. as far as i can tell but one is scratching even more. and he really is SCRATCHING ,like something is bothering him alot, also if you look at him at his side you can see a white spot,not just a dot but actually a spooot,and one of his lil. uhm whatever its called i dont know in english anyway its missing ,i think the same on the other side,i guess its from scratching.. so still havnt figured out why hes scratching... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpidersWeb Posted February 7, 2008 Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 yea mite be! totally forgot about ammonia test! lol so water change should get rid of ammonia? i actually recently had a massive water change like 50 percent if not more.. but thanx for help anyway! Doing that generally isn't a good idea. Try to keep water changes below 40% except in emergencies. Because of possible chlorine, temperature changes, and pH changes you *may* have a nitrite spike from a loss in filter bacteria. With Africans you should be careful to not swing the pH too much anyway. Test for nitrite. If you've got 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite then keep an eye out for white spot, otherwise things should settle on their own. If the white spots start appearing more and more, then you may have white spot, but hopefully thats not the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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