Concerned about parasites

[chrisfoerst]

At night my tilapia do these fluttery movements to the bottom of the tank. They dip themselves and brush the side of their bodies to the bottom of the tank. Someone just told me that they must have parasites and are trying to remove them.

Does anyone have experience with this? Should I be worried?

[urbanfarmer]

Do you see anything on the fish? Possibly white patches?

[cedarswamp]

Water parameters?

Could be parasites, could just as easily be poor water quality.

[badflash]

They could be spawning.

[rfeiller]

if they do the rubbing only at night it is probably a behavior thing.
fish live with parasites, due to crowding or when water quality is poor it weakens the fish and the parasites are opportunist. if you are concerned about the fish having parasites you can look at a sample of their skin mucus under a microscope. there are several parasites that will cause the irritation that makes them rub.
if you have a microscope you can gently net the fish and gently scrape slim from the scales around the gills and look at the scraping under the microscope. if you have parasites you will see them. you can Google fish parasites to identify them. problem is the meds toxic enough to control them can not be used on food fish. don't waste your time with salt. african cichlids are very tough fish, unlike many other species of fish and normally don't die as a result.

[chrisfoerst]

I also thought they might be spawning. They look so beautiful when they move that it was hard to believe that parasites are behind it. Water quality may have something to do with it. I am slowly moving these guys into my aquaponic system but it hasn't been ready until now. (in fact, the nitrites are still very high!)

They look very healthy to me. I don't have a microscope but what would I do if I found them anyway?

[rfeiller]

Ttheir movements would be that of trying to get away from something if it were parasites usually not graceful. Cichlids are intelligent fish with complex behavior patterns. The tilapia can be taught to do tricks for their food.

[chrisfoerst]

Ha! That is something I have yet to try.

[rfeiller]

In 1970 I was given a pair of mossies that had been used by a medical doctor to get his PhD in behavior. He had taught the tilapia to go through mazes, ring bells for their food and a few other little tricks. He had experimented with several different species and found the tilapias to be the most intelligent.
Anything that was hanging into the tank they would "ring" by hitting it with their mouths.
At that time I was breeding several different species commercially on a small scale for pet shops. There wasn't any interest in the locally. g

[keith_r]

sounds like on demand feeders would be great for tilapia