fish scraping on rocks

i have a 75 gal tank with 4 african chiclid (yellow bumble bee i persume, a dark colered one that shares the same striping as the bumble bee, then i think a zebra chiclid then an eletric yellow) i also have a jack dempsy and an oscar (im currently looking to get them there own 75+ gal tank) o and an algie eater and a small cat fish.

they all like to scrap against things (except the algie eater and catfish) alot an its more than usally. i do my frequent water changes with condintioned tap water and do my normal gravel vacumes and what not. no amonia in the tank and ph is in the 7.5 range (i have some normal gravel along with some crused coral and a little bit of sand on one end along with a drift wood in there) also have one live plant (dont know what kind it is tho :/) just a normal little plant. its been in there for a while and has not effected the fish from what ive seen.

i run amoniam chips in my filter with a little bit of carbon along with a sponge filter along with the normal filter in it.

when i first got my tank i killed my share of fish but since ive learned what im doing and have gotten better with the up keep of the tank and waterchanges and what not, i have yet to kill anymore fish.

there is also a decent amout of hiding places in the tank.

the fish are usally fine till i add some feeders from say pet smart or something (the feeders are for my oscar and jack dempsy, ocansinally the african chiclid will eat them) i usally got a guy i go to that has some pretty clean fish and i usally dont have issuies with them. after the feeders they start to scape rocks and what not.

i had an outbreak of ich at one point in time (only had the jack dempsy and yellow bumble bee at that time) they had the white spots and scraped things. i treated that by rasing the temp and treating with salt for a few weeks and it went away.

but they dont have the white spots now, just scrap sometimes, only latly, they have be doing it all the time. im guessing a batch of feeders where dirty and they have parsites on them but its been going on longer than usual now.

is there common remides for this??? would a parasite medicine help??? i know i need to get the jack dempsy and the oscar there own tank, but untill then, this set up has been going on with little issuies. like said its only when i add cheap feeder fish. but like said it has not gone away, one fish stared doing it till all of them were doing it.

any help???


sorry for the novel [laughing]

 

and it might just be a stress thing. the oscar is getting bigger now and is not running and hiding scared as much (the dark chiclid [dominate male] used to run it off scared, and well it still will run it off every now and then)

but i think its an unballence.

they dont fight or anything and they get along well.

but like said, ill have the jack dempsy and oscar in there own tank soon. i would like to try and mate the african chiclid

 

i have just recently got a 10 gal tank that im gonna set up for guppie breeding and i do try and stay away from goldfish (might try and find a tad bit bigger tank for that)

i do not know my nitrite or nitrate levels, i dont have testers for this yet, im still kinda new to the fish thing.

there is no signs of any ich or the cottony fuzzy appearance. no signs of wounds or open sores.

the dominate dark colored african chiclid does kinda turn colors when he chases the oscar some times, and he does nibble at the oscar some times, but they never get into fights, just a little breif chase. the oscar has no signs of taking damage or anything. but there is a deff a territorial thing going on in there.

basically none of the fish are getting hurt, they just do it alot, and well they kinda do it all over the tank, not in one perticular area. and the dark colored chiclid does do his matting dance from time to time so yes they could be getting teritorial from that also.

i should have another tank for the oscar and jack dempsy after christmas, just a little worried for the mean time. maybe i could add more hiding structures in there.

 

what illnesses should i treat them for?? thanks for the heads up. and any other advice on the guppie set up in general??

it probably is territory marking.

 

o and i keep my tank from 78-80* if that matters.

 

makes perfect sence.

i need to get another tank for treating new fish or even a hospitial tank. does tank size mater for this?? say a 20 gal for the african chiclid.

 

ahh aight.

thanks for the help.

 

great info!!

i ment to ask about nightcrawlers. i currently have a contaner out back growing some night crawlers (i bought them from the store refrigirated and i heard they wont reporduce if they were refrigirated, its only been a week so i dont know yet) but i also thought that worms may not be the best because all they are, are pretty much dirt (i presume) they also have this white muces stuff that comes off of them when the fish eat the worms. i try and clean them up before hand.

with the guppies, yea its more of making them work a little to get there food. the most action you see from the demisie and the oscar is when you drop some live feeder fish in there.

my main goal is to be self siffecnt and not have to relie on the LPS as much. keep quality in the control of my hands. i dont mind DIY type things. i might even start tying to build my own tanks depending on how much glass is (thats if i can beat some of the good deals i find on my local swap meets)

im also gonna add that is a great price on the test kit. i see it for way more at my LPS's kinda why i aint got one yet.

i do have another question about the scraping tho, after thinking about it a little more last night, i wanted to know what yall think. the dempsey is the only one i really notice that does this (hes the oldest and biggest and he came with the tank from the guy i got it from, if that would play into this) sometimes he almost does back flips to try and rub the top of his head and with intensity sometimes racing all around the tank trying to find something to rub on, sometimes swiming across the tank upside down. the african chiclid kinda do the same thing sometimes (but only on there sides) but they too will race around the tank trying to find things to rub on. it almost seems like there skin is iratated and there trying to scratch it. BUT at the same time, when they do it, kinda makes me think it is tertorial. they will start to do it when like said i add feeders. but that could be a deffense mechinism seeing as how they are seeing other fish get eaton so they go into defense mode. they also do it when i rearange the tank. i always thought when i did rearage things around, i stured up the dirt down in the rocks and it was to much for them, same with the feeder fish, they were just to dirty. the guy i get my feeders from that are clean, are goldfish, and i would only add a few at a time. and they never really seamed to rub on things when i would add them, but after some research i found out how there not all that good and that guppies were better but the place i get them from, i sometimes see the guppies rubing the bottom in there tanks, thats kinda what leads me to think its some kinda of parasite or well there just not that clean. (hint why i wanna set my own guppie tank up)

so idk, im confussed. i stoped adding so many feeders at a time, and that helped. figured amonia levels were spiking. (ive had this issuie for a while) and sometimes they would still rub (again depending on where i got my feeders) but it would go away after a while. but latley they have been doing it alot with no signs of letting up. its probably been a good few weeks.


thoughts???

 

i tried lettuce before with no luck. think ill try a banana later on today.