Fish behaving erratically, inexplicably

[Lyss]

I suggested the electrical tester as I know how it is to have a gut feel and wanting to "just know" and check it off the list if its not. I'm thinking a parasite as I'm going through a similar thing with my clowns and have one in quarantine because of it as we speak. Brook although I know in my experience is sneaky at first. The outside will look fine yet the fishes insides have things going on. Then the progression you see the shift and its clearly noticeable on the outside. Just been my experience.

I truly appreciate everyone trying to help by telling me they have parasites, but I can tell you there is no way the clowns and my blenny have Brooklynella. How on earth would they have gotten it after all this time? The clowns were ORA captive bred, too. I really have tried my absolute best to explain the way this occurred -- it was a freak, scary occurrence that lasted for a few minutes until I turned off the pump. Ever since, all fish have been fine. At no point did any fish lose their appetite or refuse food, or show any odd signs like stringy poo, etc, before, during, or after the episode. It was like nothing I've seen before and I'm really baffled by it. Just took a chance posting here hoping someone might have some insight or would be able to brainstorm some troubleshooting other than telling me the fish have parasites TBH.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

I have another possible hypothesis on this situation. (Some may think I'm nuts but hear me out.) I have read a number of other post like this and have witnessed it in my own tank. From the limited data, other posts and personal observations I have, it always seems to be, as you've said, late in the afternoon and as other have said (and my own account) in the evening hours. My hypothesis is this could be occurring due to the transitional lighting period where the ambient lighting around the tank darkens causing a mirror effect from the higher light inside the tank. (I had taken some pictures from inside my tank with a GoPro and noticed this effect.) The behaviors of the fish could simply be acts of territorial defense against a perceived intruder. Turning off the return pumps causes a great enough disturbance to the inhabitants to disrupt this behavior, much like squirting fighting dogs with a hose.
As I said, this is just my hypothesis. I'm leaning towards this because there is no other definite obvious cause at this time. When my fish do it, if I turn on the bright lights in the room the behavior stops. Give that a try and see what happens. (Or maybe I am just nuts. )

 

[brandon429]

dont you have fish in there from a pet store, breaking the chain of control from just the captive bred clowns?

adding in snails, crabs, rocks, corals also vector in disease though at much smaller rates of import. anything wet=not much less risk than totally unprepared fish.

 

[Lyss]

dont you have fish in there from a pet store, breaking the chain of control from just the captive bred clowns?

adding in snails, crabs, rocks, corals also vector in disease though at much smaller rates of import. anything wet=not much less risk than totally unprepared fish.

Right but they've been in there for going on a year now w/no new additions, and the fish were all quarantined prior to being added. I could be swayed if the fish were new and I just dumped them in after buying them at my LFS, or if they were acting lethargic and sickly, refusing food, etc, but they never were.

 

[brandon429]

all my posts state 8 mos is the going average for losses when dealing in unprepped items, you're 4 beyond/relatively close interval

any snails added recently

 

[Lyss]

Right but they've been in there for going on a year now w/no new additions, and the fish were all quarantined prior to being added. I could be swayed if the fish were new and I just dumped them in after buying them at my LFS, or if they were acting lethargic and sickly, refusing food, etc, but they never were.

I also unfortunately had a Betta a while back that had velvet. I understand how the flashing and that sort of behavior is really aligned with parasitic diseases b/c I witnessed it w/that fish. But once they start displaying it if they're truly sick they don't stop unless treated. So this is where my confusion comes in. It was like that behavior got randomly turned on and then off within the span of 10 minutes, and then just went away.

 

[Lyss]

all my posts state 8 mos is the going average for losses when dealing in unprepped items, you're 4 beyond/relatively close interval

any snails added recently

Like is said, I have not added anything new for months -- May was when I added my cleaner shrimp and some corals.

 

[brandon429]

the vectoring risk is low, but not able to be ruled out, you must rule in fish disease as a potential for sure. if your tank was mine I'd refallow it. you're likely keeping things fed/conditions so well natural immunity is handling things but if that worked for the majority the fish disease forum would be a slow place. I recommend re fallowing the system based on collective posts in the fish disease forum, not because Im a meanie / sheer pattern makes the basis for the referral. emergent symptoms matching known disease cases just now also add to the reco, nobody can be certain but some patterns are also emerging in support of re fallowing in my opinion.

 

[Lyss]

the vectoring risk is low, but not able to be ruled out, you must rule in fish disease as a potential for sure. if your tank was mine I'd refallow it. you're likely keeping things fed/conditions so well natural immunity is handling things but if that worked for the majority the fish disease forum would be a slow place. I recommend re fallowing the system based on collective posts in the fish disease forum, not because Im a meanie / sheer pattern makes the basis for the referral. emergent symptoms matching known disease cases just now also add to the reco, nobody can be certain but some patterns are also emerging in support of re fallowing in my opinion.

That is a bit drastic. I'm not pulling the fish unless there is a clear reason to do that to them, which will undoubtedly cause stress. They are not sick, but should I see clear evidence that they definitely are that is what I will do. Look, I don't think you're "a meanie" or even know why you would talk to me like that. I am simply feeling like I'm hitting a wall on the real help I'm getting here. Many thanks to you and everyone else who has chimed in -- I truly appreciate it. I'm going to sign off this thread now.

 

[brandon429]

when I re read my post, I can't see a lick of meanness in it/web semantics I guess.

I specifically thought you were being talked to a nice way

also didn't take from prior posts that we'd rule out fish disease as well, truly I thought my summary was one of the collective posts going on here and the fixes shown in stickies from the forum. indeed was not expecting good reception of the fallow recommend.

Salt water ich destroyed my tank

So everything was going well with my tank until one fish eventually got ich and within days it destroyed all the fish. It’s been a month since then I still have my snails crabs and shrimp. They are all fine. My question is do I have to drain my entire tank? I have been slowly letting the water...

www.reef2reef.com

same recommend, o.k. reception

 

[Lyss]

Closing the loop on this. Y’day afternoon, after I’d received what I’d ordered via Amazon, I shut everything in the tank off, added a grounding probe, then turned the system back on — and nothing happened. So I figured must not be it, left the probe in anyway, and forgot about it.

Then late last night the GFCI suddenly tripped. I took the pump out and everything is running fine now — no more trips so far. Added the extra powerhead like I did the other night when I had the return pump off.

Of course the meter was the one thing that was delayed shipping, so I don’t have that yet. I still need to test each piece of equipment to be 100% positive it’s the pump. Either way I’m thankful to Red Sea for immediately shipping me a new pump no questions asked.

I know a lot of folks wanted to tell me my fish have Brooklynella, but treating the fish for a brief episode that resolved when they’ve shown no outward symptoms, no lethargy, no loss of appetite, felt like not a good thing to do. I was particularly fearful of the idea that something could be going wrong electrically and I’d just ignore it, putting myself in danger.

I wanted to especially thank Jay, whose early post kinda narrowed it down to parasites or an electrical short, and acknowledged that it would be odd for the behavior to just go away if parasites. Really helped me to think to definitely check on electric, and if that came up negative then look for further signs of parasites.

I’m still monitoring the fish and so far all 3 are doing well — I do early tank maintenance every morning and they like to come out to say “good morning” and hover around while I work — which they all did today like normal, then ate breakfast like greedy little monsters.