Do fish get itchy?

Question

My oscors line up in a row and swim upside down behing this rock. like they are scratching there backs. they do it all the time. whats up with that? are they itchy or just nuts? should i put some prozac in the tank

Answer 1

How interesting I was just wondering the same thing!! Great minds think alike I guess!

Answer 2

Fish do get itchy, and they will scratch themselves by rubbing against things, just as you describe. Usually, when fish "scratch," it is a sign of illness.

"Fish Lice' are fairly large creatures the size of a match head, and whitish. They squirm their way between scales to suck blood.

'Anchor worms" are long trailing creatures that look a lot like a sticky piece of fish poo. They usually infect the underside of the fish, and even after being medicated to kill them, you will have to remove the worm itself by hand.

ICK is a strange parasite, which reproduces by making white "kosher salt" looking spots on the skin of your fish. The spores can last for a long time. In theory, it is possible to cure ick by transferring your fish from one perfectly clean tank to another to another each day for ten days... but the shock is not good, and medication will be easier to find. Also, since the spores can remain inert forever in the gravel, keeping some medication on hand is a good idea.

Velvet is another disease, similar to ick. It looks more like fine gold dust, is harder to treat, and far more lethal.

Sometimes certain diseases cause the fish to bleed, or produce slime wrong. If you see red around the scales of your fish, or if their slime coat is thicker than usual, there might be septimacea, or a fungus causing them trouble.

My advice is to MEDICATE your fish, not with prozac, but with something you find at the pet store. Read the boxes, consider what else (f anything) is in the tank, and talk to a sales representative about your fish's problems, making specific mention of when you first noticed this behavior, and what other problems (such as those I mentioned) are also present.

If none of these obvious diseases are present, it could be that there are too many nitrates in the water, and you should change water more often. Using a stress coat might also help, as fish tend to get itchier when their slime coat isn't working. There are some things we just don't know, after all.

Answer 3

Many fish will exhibit this behaviour, called flashing. It can be indicative of many things, including parasites which burrow under scales and cause discomfort/itchiness, a change in water parameters which can occur after a water change, a healing injury, ammonia burn, or just an itch.

Do your have fish white spots on them, as though they rolled in salt or sand? If so, your fish have the parasite known as Ich, and should be treated. Ich meds do more harm than good, so use the salt treatment. Put 1tbsp of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of tank water, disolved first in a cup of dechlorinated water. Over the course of 2 weeks it will kill your ich without harming your fish, and then you can resume water changes as normal to eventually dilute the salted water.

Do they exhibit this behaviour right after a water change? A change in pH can cause discomfort/itchyness. If this is the case, try changing less water, more often.

How often do you clean the water? And is your tank big enough? Oscars big fish, and thus produce a lot of waste (as adults, each oscar will need 55 gallons of space, at least). I don't know how old your fish are or how many you have, but you should be changing 20-40% of the water each week. In a dirty tank, ammonia builds up, causing discomfort.

Answer 4

lol prozac! Yes, fish do get itchy. That is why they rub up against the rocks in your tank. Keep an eye out for ich though.

Answer 5

Actually yeah. Fish can get really itchy sometimes. I wish my fish did something cool like that!!!

Answer 6

Generally this is an early sign of ich, or velvet. Assuming this isn't normal oscar behavior. (Don't own any.) It could also be the results of high nitrate levels.

Ich- White salt grain sized spots
Velvet- Red/gold haze on scales visible when you shine a flashlight on the fish.

Treat both with an anti-ich med from the LFS. In the case of velvet make sure it claims to treat velvet. (I'm not aware of any meds that don't treat both, but...)

Answer 7

yes they do and to defnce it we should
Try raising the temperature of your tank and adding a bit of aquarium salt designed for freshwater aquariums. The instructions are on the box. If you buy a treatment for ich, not only will it kill the parasite, but it will kill all the beneficial bacteria in your tank and the increase of ammonia, nitrites and nitrates will also kill your fish. If you decide to use a store bought medication, put the affected fish in another container while you treat it.

Answer 8

They most likely have ich. It makes a fish real itchy and they'll try to rub their bodies on rocks etc. If they do you can just treat your tank with a solution..
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ich.htm

Answer 9

It's bad

Answer 10

theyre probably itchy then but i dont know if they really do.