Advice needed: Unusual behaviour of my Apistogramma bitaeniata

**illumnae** · 29th Jul 2007, 00:25

today my male bitaeniata went abit crazy, darting around the tank for no reason, then staying near the surface for awhile flaring at nothing before going down to the bottom again...happened twice in a 1 hour span and now it's hiding in a cave, which it usually doesn't do. colouration wise it's normal and not black.

anyone have experience with this?

**taygu** · 29th Jul 2007, 17:17

Hi, did you check the water and does the body turn darker. If yes, may be a sign of sometime in the water causing it and to be safe, better to check the water..

**illumnae** · 29th Jul 2007, 21:42

the body didn't turn darker, and it's not a constant behaviour, it just did it twice in an hour span then stopped...don't think it's the water as i didn't change anything since changing water about half a week ago...the female is also acting fine and now that the male is occupied with going crazy, she actually stopped being black and has ventured forth instead of hiding all day like she used to from the male

**iwishweallcouldwin** · 29th Jul 2007, 23:11

what is wrong with the water if the body turns darker?

**illumnae** · 29th Jul 2007, 23:13

body turns darker is a sign of stress if i'm not wrong...that's how it is with discus and what i notice with my newbie apisto knowledge as well...so i'm assuming it's a cichlid trait

**taygu** · 30th Jul 2007, 20:07

From my experiences, that is the sign of something is wrong, the fish is stressed. Reason can be the water condition (including high temperature) or the fish is sick. If the body colour is normal, then it should be ok but still need to observe for a few days...

**Interestor** · 1st Aug 2007, 13:14

if allowed, add Potassium Permanganate.

Cheers..

**illumnae** · 3rd Aug 2007, 00:30

my apisto is back to normal again...i guess maybe it wasn't used to the sudden dip in temperature caused by the rain the last 2 weeks so it went abit bonkers