Changes In Fish Behavior

[travis32]

This is strange, as I'm not a fish psychologist, but, I've noticed some strange changes in my fish behavior.

I fed flake last night and as usual primarily my betta ate the flake. Usually the grama will go after some, but it really doesn't care much for flake. The betta ate some, spit some out, not sure how much he actually ate.

So, a few hours later I decided to feed some of my shrimp mix to make sure they had food. Usually my grama goes nuts for shrimp darting everywhere to get pieces that my betta leaves behind.

Neither fish ate the shrimp..... The grama just stared at me as it floated past him, and the betta, may have picked up a few pieces, but wasn't very agressive about it.

I had noticed through the evening that the grama would dart into the rocks and do loop de loops in the water. Seriously, split second loops or figure eights by some rocks or through the rock work. It was pretty neat, but every few minutes it would go do it again.

So, i'm not sure what to think, the water acrobatics combined with not eating was pretty abnormal for the fish. The betta ate but didn't eat much.

The only adverse things I noticed is my powerhead had locked up (modded maxijet prop sometimes freezes up.) I have 2 evolutions on the way to replace that. However, the skimmer is still working and the overflow etc is still oxygenating the water. So, I don't feel it's an oxygen issue.

I checked ph right away to make sure it wasn't spiking, it was still at 8.2-8.3.

I didn't have time to check the other parameters. Though I haven't changed anything that would really affect the parameters. I've been placing nori sheets (just small sections) hanging in the water column for my blenny. In the last week he's gotten fat and started to form a belly finally. So, he's acting healthier than normal.

Do gramas just go nuts some days?

[The Reef Expert]

In a sense, fish do what fish damn well please, it's like toddler psychology. They may have been scavenging your sand bed, found some uneaten food and eaten it, and weren't hungry, they could have made a small agglomeration of uneaten food in a cave somewhere and are pigging out on that, and they may just not have been hungry. In any case... keep a close eye on both of them. If you notice any other strange changes in behavior, it may be a sign of a parasite in their digestive system. Let me know how things work out though!

[travis32]

we'll see what happens, like you said, they may just have been full. Maybe they were eating off the nori throughout the day. Who knows. Yeah, I'll monitor them for anything weird. I like the fish acrobatics though.

[The Reef Expert]

Oh, if you had nori clipped in the tank, then you tried to feed them a while later they probably weren't extremely hungry. The erratic behavior is probably just burning extra proteins from the nori.

[travis32]

aah. O.k. I had never seen my grama eat nori. My betta hates the stuff. So i assumed the grama would too. It's funny he'd eat pieces he thought were flake and spit them out as soon as they were in his mouth. Just absolutely hates it.

I thought it was my blenny just eating it, but, yeah, that could be. I never thought of that.

Thanks! See, I knew there was something to it. I withheld the nori today so we'll see if he eats o.k. when I get home, I'm sure he will.

[snorvich]

Specific Gravity? How measured?

[travis32]

I need to retest, it's been a week since testing Sg, Nitrates, and Ammonia.

Last tested with calibrated Refrac Sg was 1.025. Last tested with API test kits, Ammonia and nitrates both registered undetectable. I've done nothing that could have caused those to increase (that I'm aware of). But, if the fish are still acting funky, I'll retest.