thartley
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Recently, my Neon Tetras exhibit a strange behavior when they are fed. They eat flake food and they all have good appetites. Part way through their meal, they lose the ability to swim normally. Instead of swimming with their bodies in a more or less horizontal position, they all swim with their bodies at about 30 degrees to horizontal, with the head lower than the tail. It seems that they have a hard time descending towards the bottom, but they can get to the top of the tank with no problem.
But the thing that really caught my attention was when I saw two of them just floating on their sides at the water's surface like they were dead. They would float like that for a minute or so, swim awkwardly down into the tank for a bit and then float back up to the surface like they were dead. Their spines even curve to the side whenever they are floating. The first time I saw this, I thought for sure I would be removing a couple of corpses the next morning. In fact, I almost removed them right then because I was afraid they had something contagious. I opted to leave them alone, and to my surprise, the next morning they were all swimming normally. This behavior only happens at feeding time. Upon closer observation of the two that play dead, I can see their gills are still moving when they are floating.
I have a few Harlequin Rasboras in the tank too, but they don't exhibit any of these behaviors.
It almost seems that maybe part of the problem could be that the fish are gulping some air when they eat the flakes from the surface, but this is just a guess. Their bellies seem to be more pronounced when they eat. I'm wondering if the air could be causing them to swim at an angle. This would also explain why they seem to work so hard at descending into the tank, but have no problem ascending to the surface.
Anybody else ever seen or heard of anything like this?
But the thing that really caught my attention was when I saw two of them just floating on their sides at the water's surface like they were dead. They would float like that for a minute or so, swim awkwardly down into the tank for a bit and then float back up to the surface like they were dead. Their spines even curve to the side whenever they are floating. The first time I saw this, I thought for sure I would be removing a couple of corpses the next morning. In fact, I almost removed them right then because I was afraid they had something contagious. I opted to leave them alone, and to my surprise, the next morning they were all swimming normally. This behavior only happens at feeding time. Upon closer observation of the two that play dead, I can see their gills are still moving when they are floating.
I have a few Harlequin Rasboras in the tank too, but they don't exhibit any of these behaviors.
It almost seems that maybe part of the problem could be that the fish are gulping some air when they eat the flakes from the surface, but this is just a guess. Their bellies seem to be more pronounced when they eat. I'm wondering if the air could be causing them to swim at an angle. This would also explain why they seem to work so hard at descending into the tank, but have no problem ascending to the surface.
Anybody else ever seen or heard of anything like this?
