Strange behaivior ( rock brushing)

[Guest]

Hello,

I was wondering about a weird behavior with my blue zebra cichlid.

Every so often he will rub against the rocks in a fast motion. Almost like nudging the rock.

I have a couple of ideas about it.

1. He might be irritated to the water condition.
2. He's establishing his territory

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks

 

[mr86mister]

what are your water conditions? what kind of filter do you use, and do you have a pic. of it so we can look for possible external parasites, ich, or something else

 

[Guest]

Hi and thanks for the quick reply.

Ok, I keep the ph at about 7.5, which is a little low for a malawi cichlid, but barable.
my tank and such are not the best.

It's an old 20gal tank with a normal style filter that runs water across a long flat filter sponge then back into the water.

I also have an extra side filter, but it blows the sand around too much.

 

[Blucat]

Well it could be that his skin is itchy or irritated. This is a symptom for some parasital diseases

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Mine do the same thing. Well, some of them do. And after seeing it, I treated for ich and other parasites for about 2 months and they STILL do it. Now I am confused as ever so I just let it be. I'm thinking it could just be in their nature to do it. Now if they have little white spots all over them, that's another story.