Frequent Flashing- Not normal amounts

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Snake42490
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2010 1:23 pm

Frequent Flashing- Not normal amounts

Post by Snake42490 »

I am going to try and explain this as in depth as possible. My 220 gallon tank has been set up for the past seven years and as of about two months ago I decided to get a few more fish to add to the list. I purchased a 4 inch tank raised male champsochromis caerleus, and Wild bucco. Rhoadessi and a Nimbo. Fusco. I kept them in a QT tank a month and a half for the Champ. and 1 month for the bucco and the nimbo fusco. Everything between them was going well. I observed no weird symptoms from any of the fish. As of last week I added those 3 fish to my already existing tank of

12 Blue dolphin moorii
7- nimbo venusteus- unsexed at this point
3 red empress
4 champsochromis caerleus
1 nimbo fusco
5 syno multis.

The first week has gone by absolutely fine, so i thought, I originally removed my, large nimbo venusteus because of aggression issues and added some of his grown up fry back to the tank in hopes of getting a decent male. this was done at the same time as adding the other bucco and champ. I did this in hopes of not having any fish singled out in the process of adding.

As of last night I noticed a lot of flashing, each fish I would say is flashing between 5 and 6 times a minute, I have never noticed this behavior in any of these species to this extent. I am responsible on upkeeps and water changes, my bigger tank gets one every 3 days, and since adding new fish i have done a 25 percent every two days just so i didn't mess any ben. bacteria up with adding the extra fish. Water is testing out fine besides nitrates which are very low, nothing that has bothered me in the past.

Temp- 76 ( checked and verified)
ph- 7.8
Am- 0
Nitrates- 10-15


If you could point me in the right direction, should I wait, should i begin doing some kind of medication. i feel like if i did have to do a med i would have to med the whole tank, i just don't know how realistic it would be to separate each fish.

I have looked at all fish, some fish have very minor scratches from a chase, mostly just the champs, but everyone else has nothing. I have monitored breating and everything appears to be fine, gills do not seem inflamed or bulging from the sides. The fish still have a very strong appetite as usual. I feed my fish once a day and skip feedings once a week.

Maybe I am just being paranoid about all of this, but this is my favorite and most invested tank that I have and I would be absolutely sick if anything happened that could have better been prevented.

As of right now since I have noticed this happening I did a 35 percent water change, added a bit extra dechlor cause of the heavy rain in the area and added a bit of stress coat. I don't want their bodies becoming raw from flashing. I also started feeding NLS Thera A non medicated anti parsite food.

If this was your tank I want to know what you would do to fix this or correctly diagnos this. My hunch is if you think something is wrong it probably came from the Wild Bucco. Rhoadessi.

Thanks pam...

By the way, the other one that seemed sick from the start seems a bit better, it's in rough shape, and I started a new med. Also, I make sure that none of my equipment gets shared between tanks, each tank has it's own gravel vac that i use for it and if i do need to share I clean it and let it dry.
Pam Chin
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Re: Frequent Flashing- Not normal amounts

Post by Pam Chin »

Hi Snake,

Unless I actually see Ick, I don't worry about flashing. It could be from your water changes, it could be the copper in your pipes? Maybe your fish just have an itch?? You have done everything right, you have quarantined your new acquisitions, you added multiple fish so no one would get singled out. If they are acting normal otherwise; no one is sitting on the bottom of the tank, folded fins, breathing hard, etc. then I wouldn't worry.

The last thing you want to do is to treat this tank since it is already established. Keep an eye on them, and go from there, but again, if they are acting normal, and eathing and only flashing I wouldn't worry about it. The only red flag I see is your pH, it is really low in my opinion, and if you want to see the full potential color and action from your fish, you need to figure out how to increase it. Whether you add a media to your filter, or even a pH upper, you will be amazed at the improvement in color. Happy fish always look better!

Feeding your fish a food that has meds in it, is a good way for your fish to build up a resistance to meds. Then if something does hit your tank, there isn't much you can do, because the antibiotics will not be effective. And did you know that even YOU can build up an resistance antibiotics as well when you use products like this?

Often these fish will flash after water changes, and you can add some water conditioners that help promote the production of slime on your fish and that will sometimes make a difference in their flashing. I would work on increasing your pH and go from there!

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