Darting otocinclus

When I do a water change on my 10 gallon tank, my Otocinclus dart around
like crazy fish for the next day or two whenever I approach the tank.
The guppies act perfectly normally. The pH of my tap and tank water are
close and I match temps as well. My tap water contains chloramine. I
was treating with AmQuel but tried switching to Tetra's AquaSafe
wondering if the problem could be heavy metals. It made no difference.

It only happens in one of my three tanks, but all three get the same 50%
water change, same amount of water conditioner and have the same species
of Otocinclus bought at the same time. One unaffected tank has carbon
in the filter, but the other doesn't. Anyone got any ideas, or is this
nothing to worry about?

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

In message , Elaine T
writes
When I do a water change on my 10 gallon tank, my Otocinclus dart
around like crazy fish for the next day or two whenever I approach the
tank. The guppies act perfectly normally. The pH of my tap and tank
water are close and I match temps as well. My tap water contains
chloramine. I was treating with AmQuel but tried switching to Tetra's
AquaSafe wondering if the problem could be heavy metals. It made no
difference.

It only happens in one of my three tanks, but all three get the same
50% water change, same amount of water conditioner and have the same
species of Otocinclus bought at the same time. One unaffected tank has
carbon in the filter, but the other doesn't. Anyone got any ideas, or
is this nothing to worry about?

a guess from a nearly clueless newbie: the only thing I can think of, if
your water parameters in all the tanks is the same, is that for some
reason the water change bothers the otos in this tank more than in the
others... less places for them to hide? more places for them to hide so
they never realise it's not too much of a problem? you vacuum up their
secret stash of oto algae goodies?


--
sophie

www.freewebs.com/fishstuff
(under construction. ish.)

"sophiefishstuff" wrote in
message ...
In message , Elaine T
writes
When I do a water change on my 10 gallon tank, my Otocinclus dart
around like crazy fish for the next day or two whenever I approach the
tank. The guppies act perfectly normally. The pH of my tap and tank
water are close and I match temps as well. My tap water contains
chloramine. I was treating with AmQuel but tried switching to Tetra's
AquaSafe wondering if the problem could be heavy metals. It made no
difference.

It only happens in one of my three tanks, but all three get the same
50% water change, same amount of water conditioner and have the same
species of Otocinclus bought at the same time. One unaffected tank has
carbon in the filter, but the other doesn't. Anyone got any ideas, or
is this nothing to worry about?

a guess from a nearly clueless newbie: the only thing I can think of,
if your water parameters in all the tanks is the same, is that for some
reason the water change bothers the otos in this tank more than in the
others... less places for them to hide? more places for them to hide so
they never realise it's not too much of a problem? you vacuum up their
secret stash of oto algae goodies?


--
sophie

www.freewebs.com/fishstuff
(under construction. ish.)

Occasionally I've had fish which were completely oblivious to water
changes, but most had some type of a reaction, either behaviourally such
as getting friskier, shy or irritable to color/hue changes. Of my
current fish, the Guppies remain oblivious, Julies get more active and
the Monos develop a shadow on their sides and lose a bit of color in
their lower jaw. The water changes match very closely. My biggest
suspect is currently in the amount of dissolved gases in the water. This
one you can prove/disprove easily by letting the water air for a couple
of days to that tank.
--
www.NetMax.tk