erratic swimming

[tromboneplaya]

My fish, Fievel, just recently started swimming weirdly and acting just kind of crazy. He darts around the tank suddenly and he'll do nose dives into the rocks just out of nowhere. I've had him for two weeks now and as of a few days ago he was doing great...eating like a pig and no weird behavior. I did have him in aq salt for the first week because he had fin rot....that's gone now so I stopped the salt a couple days before he started acting weird.

His tank is 2.5 gallons, heated, filtered, and I do water changes twice a week. Anyone have any idea what it could be? He appears to be perfectly healthy except he swims crazy and now he is hiding a lot and won't come up to the surface to eat.

[shellieca]

Have you tested the water for ammonia, nitrite & nitrates? I know you're doing frequent water changes but that's where I'd start. Does he have any tank mates? What is the temp of the water? How often is he "darting" around? Does he look like he has white spots like sprinkled with sugar? Is he pooing normal?

[tromboneplaya]

I'll test the water tonight. But he doesn't have ich (not that I can see anyway), the tank is a constant 78 degrees, and his poo also seems to be normal. He seems to just dart when I'm at the tank or if I open the lid to feed him but I'm not home most of the day because of school so idk how often he does it for sure. It just seems odd because he was just fine and not scared at all a few days ago. He also lives alone. I'm just worried because he's my first rescue and I want to do a good job with him....do you think a larger tank would make him feel less scared? Because I could probably get him a 5 gallon tonight if that would help.....

[shellieca]

I don't think I'd worry too much. My newest one will dart if I do certain things but mostly he just explores his tank waiting for food to fall from the sky. If he were doing all of the time then I'd worry a little bit, but it sounds like he's just overly excited. If there were a problem he'd be doing it without you near the tank, so if you can watch him from a distance & see what he does.

[sainthogan]

My girl does that when she's startled when she's not feeling well. About a month ago she was doing that exact same thing except for the not eating part (she's a little piggy). But she would dart around erratically and hide whenever I was in the room. Her eyes became a little cloudy, so i thought maybe she couldn't see. Then they cleared up and her tail became clamped and got a thick slime coat on it. Then her tail got better and she quit hiding and darting. I never did figure out what was wrong with her, some mild infection I presume. Perhaps your fish is fighting off an infection too.
She also swims erratically and hides when she's pooping and I come close to the tank. I guess she likes her privacy.

[tromboneplaya]

Well, since I'm the biggest worrier ever, I went out and got Fievel a new 5 gallon tank. He's in it now and already seems more relaxed....we'll see if it keeps up but I'm feeling pretty good about it!

[shellieca]

He'll love having twice as much room. Are you using the filter for it? If so, don't forget that you'll now be doing a fish in cycle so you'll want to keep an eye on the ammonia, nitrites & nitrates. Unless you moved over the filter media from the 2.5g then you should be good but I'd still keep an eye on the water parameters for a few days.

[tromboneplaya]

I moved the old filter over into the new tank. That should help, but I'm still going to closely monitor the parameters. I don't want anything else going wrong!