Male Behaciour is Eratic.

[gtguihot]

Hi.
I'm a long time reader, first time poster.
I recently sold up my Africans and got into Discus. I bought a proven pair of Golden Pigeon Bloods in good health. I have had them for about 2 months, in quarantine, and in this time they have bred 3 times. Female ate the eggs every time. Recently I decided to try them for a successful breeding.
However the male has started behaving strange. He will be all sweet then start thrashing around the tank going nutty. Soon he stops in a corner and chills out for a bit. Then he is fine again. He does this about twice a day. Sometimes he has his fins clamped down but most of the time he is normal. His poo is fine. He eats fine. Tetra bits, Blood worms, Black worms, Beef Heart. The only change I have made is a small amount of meth blue in the water. I do 20 % water changes daily. PH is 6.5. I am looking at him right now and he looks fine. Hes cleaning the cone.
Anyone got any ideas?

[Matt15]

Define "nutty" and "thrashing" around in terms of exactly what ur male is doing?
I'm taking this two ways.

1.) Your water conditions are bad so your male is wanting out and in an effort to rid himself from these bad conditions he's smashing himself into the glass and any other objects found in the tank. Clamped fins are also a bad sign for this.

2.) When its breeding time... both males and females "dance" with each other. They move, wiggle and thrash there tails at each other letting the other fish know its time to lay the eggs.

Perhaps you should do further testing of your water? Are you treating the water you add daily?

[rwel4809]

I'm thinking flukes.. it makes them go crazy when they start itching...

If it is then your best bet is a pp dip... There are posts in the medications section with dosing information.

HTH

R.

[gtguihot]

By thrashing about I mean swimming extremely fast around the tank, doesn't really "bump" anything. Afterwards he will sit in a corner gasping for air. After about 5 mins he is fine. They both are still eating fine and his behaviour is fine for the rest of the day. They display breeding behaviour during other parts of the day and he seems quite content with everything. Hence the world "nutty". I don't know if it is a coincidence but it started when I put some Meth blue in the water.