Strange barb behavior

[eah]

I have five checkered barbs in my 55 gallon tank along with a few gouramis, cories, ottos and a small pleco. The barbs are a healthy golden color and have been in the tank for about a year. Starting perhaps a few weeks ago, the barbs have been mysteriously hiding. They spend most of their time hiding in plants, driftwood and caves and will occasionally swim about in a very spastic way, glancing on driftwood as they go. They look healthy otherwise. The other fish in the tank are fine. Temperature is in the mid-70s, ammonia and nitrite are both zero and the nitrates are at about 5-10ppm.

Any clue as to what could be going on???

 

[Leeny]

I don't know much at all about barbs, and this is just speculation. Could they be mating/ laying eggs? Again, I'm just guessing, but some of my fish do strange things when they mate.

 

[eah]

I don't know much at all about barbs, and this is just speculation. Could they be mating/ laying eggs? Again, I'm just guessing, but some of my fish do strange things when they mate.

That thought hadn't really crossed my mind since they are all acting so strange... I'm thinking that if it were breeding behavior, that it wouldn't apply to all of them?? I am totally at a loss though!

 

[kimo]

"They spend most of their time hiding in plants, driftwood and caves and will occasionally swim about in a very spastic way, glancing on driftwood as they go.

Check for gill flukes.

 

[eah]

"They spend most of their time hiding in plants, driftwood and caves and will occasionally swim about in a very spastic way, glancing on driftwood as they go.

Check for gill flukes.

I'm not very experienced with gill flukes. I looked at their gills and they seem fine, no inflammation or strange looking things in the area...

 

[eah]

Any other thoughts about this?

 

[haykay]

flashing off theings sounds like it may be a problem... have you looked for ANYTHING unusla and then done a disease search?

 

[eah]

flashing off theings sounds like it may be a problem... have you looked for ANYTHING unusla and then done a disease search?

Everybody else in the tank seems to be doing fine. I've looked over all of my fish and nothing appears amiss. I've actually moved the barbs into a 20 gallon long for observation and they appear to be acting normally now too... Of course, the 20 gallon long doesn't have any hiding places and much fewer plants. So, it's not clear if they aren't hiding because there aren't hiding spots in the new tank or because they are feeling "back to normal"... However, they aren't darting around furiously now. So that's a good sign.

Any other thoughts on the initial weird behavior??