Odd platy behavior

[beglely]

Ive been observing one of my sunburst platy's lately. Its been acting wierd. I have some mondo grass in the tank and the fish has a habit of swimming up towards a blade of the grass at an angle, brushing up against it, then quickly sprinting away kinda like the fish was skipped off the blade of grass. The fish then turns around and does the exact same thing again. Im trying to get video of it to help explain but any thoughts??

 

[joy13]

Your fish are doing what is called flashing. It can be caused by parasites either ich or velvet. Both are easily treated by raising the temperature up slowly to about 82 to 84 leaving it up there for a couple of weeks. For velvet it is best to keep the lights out because that helps break the life cycle faster. There are medicines you can get to use but if you have shrimp or snails they probably not make it through the treatment.

Check your ammonia and nitrites just to be on the safe side.

 

[beglely]

great just what I need now. ammonia and nitrites are 0 so theres no problem in the water. ive only seen this behavior twice since they moved into the tank on monday. Ill up the temp a bit and see if that helps.

 

[peaceablegarden]

Well, that is odd. My two platies have done the same thing but on my old heater and no where else in the tank (when my betta had velvet he would flash anywhere and everywhere). Since putting in the new heater they stopped and I haven't seen the behavior any more. I posted it here a few weeks ago. One other person posted the same odd behavior. Is a male that's doing it? I think it's really just some sort of platy mating behavior.

 

[Zagz]

Actually your temp needs to be above 86F. Ich dies at 86 and above.

Your fish may be flashing or just exhibiting mating behaviours. Is there only the one fish that is doing it? As a precaution you can raise the temps slowly if you want. Add aeration or lower the water level a bit to create more splash when the temps are up.

 

[beglely]

yeah ive only seen one of my platys doing it and it doesnt occur very often and got decent aeration. Ill see if the behavior persists over the next few days.