Fish Diseases where they rub against rocks?

B

Buzzsaw

New member
I have a tank with 3 Red Zebra Mbuna African Cichlids.

I recently had the ph drop to 6.6 but just finally got it back up to normal 2 days ago.

I've noticed lately that one of them has been rubbing the side of his head against the logs and rocks that I have in my tank.

I've carefully inspected all of my fish and there are no signs of Ich.

Any ideas of what it could be?

(There appears to be nothing on the side of his head where he is rubbing it)

I know what Ich is/looks like.

IT IS NOT ICH!!!!!
 
It can be a number of things , hold in head , parasites ..etc... Go down to your pet store were ever the strikly deal with tropical fish , and ask them for a sick fish chart ... They should be free , in it it tells you what problem the fish may have and the kind of treatment you need to give ...I know those are very exspensive and well take care of .. O this chart gives you every disease on there and that there is and the cure ...
 
It could be the start of ich or another parasite infection, and you're just not able to see it yet. Any drastic changes in the water quality can stress the fish and allow the parasites to "overtake" the fish. Keep monitoring them and watch for other signs to show up.

It could also be from the ph change. That will cause symptoms similar to a parasite infection.

I don't know what you're doing with your ph-if anything, or what you normally keep it at, but a few quick tips....
Test your tap water ph first. Get a glass of water and immediately test the ph and hardness. Leave it sit out and re-test it about 12-24 hours later. That should be about what's going on in your tank ph wise. If you have a lower ph/softer more acidic water, it's more unstable and prone to fluctuations. You'd be best off getting a bit of crushed coral and adding it to a mesh filter media bag and putting it in your filter, or add some lime stone rocks to the tank. That'll increase the hardness a bit and keep the ph stable and it shouldn't drop on you.

Another cause of ph dropping or crashing, too much waste in the substrate-not enough gravel vacuums. Be sure you're doing weekly partial water changes/gravel vacs of at least 25% for a normal stocked fully cycled tank. Doing this also replaces minerals and such that are depleted from the water, which can cause ph to crash.

Don't rely on just using ph up/down/neutral products to alter the ph. You must buffer the water to increase the hardness to keep the ph at the level you want. It's easier to raise ph then to lower it.


.
 
It could be the start of ich or another parasite infection, and you're just not able to see it yet. Any drastic changes in the water quality can stress the fish and allow the parasites to "overtake" the fish. Keep monitoring them and watch for other signs to show up.

It could also be from the ph change. That will cause symptoms similar to a parasite infection.

I don't know what you're doing with your ph-if anything, or what you normally keep it at, but a few quick tips....
Test your tap water ph first. Get a glass of water and immediately test the ph and hardness. Leave it sit out and re-test it about 12-24 hours later. That should be about what's going on in your tank ph wise. If you have a lower ph/softer more acidic water, it's more unstable and prone to fluctuations. You'd be best off getting a bit of crushed coral and adding it to a mesh filter media bag and putting it in your filter, or add some lime stone rocks to the tank. That'll increase the hardness a bit and keep the ph stable and it shouldn't drop on you.

Another cause of ph dropping or crashing, too much waste in the substrate-not enough gravel vacuums. Be sure you're doing weekly partial water changes/gravel vacs of at least 25% for a normal stocked fully cycled tank. Doing this also replaces minerals and such that are depleted from the water, which can cause ph to crash.

Don't rely on just using ph up/down/neutral products to alter the ph. You must buffer the water to increase the hardness to keep the ph at the level you want. It's easier to raise ph then to lower it.


.
 
This is normal for fish to do and its called "flashing" Fish will do this from time to time and is mostly done just after a water change due to the metals found in tap water even though you treat the water some metals are still present and the fish will become slightly irritated until they get use to the water. I would not be alarmed unless the fish become lathargic or signs of illness such as ich appears.
 
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