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Tilapia behavior - frenzied spasm

I've had 9 tilapia in a 55 gallon aquarium for about a month now. I just watched one of them zip back and forth very quickly, sometimes skimming the top of the water and going airborne and sometimes swimming along the bottom and slamming into things. This all happened in about 15 seconds. After the spasm, the fish seemed stunned and sat on the bottom of the tank for awhile and then sucked air at the surface for awhile. He's behaving a little more normally now, but it's a bit worrisome because I witnessed one of them do this yesterday, too.

Any idea what this behavior means?

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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on December 20, 2011 at 6:36am

Not sure what in means with the fish but I would make sure you have a good cover over the tank to bounce any jumpers back down.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Smith on December 20, 2011 at 10:17am

I had a similar problem with some of the fish from my first breeding. Some of the fish would swim eradically in circles and upside down. Some of their bodies grew into curved shapes. These symptoms began to appear when the fish got to the 2 inch range. The bulk of fish seemed fine however. I removed the funky fish and threw them in with the big fish where they became a quick snack.

I never found out exactly what the problem was but I suspect it was inbreeding. I bread the first few large fish that I had acquired. The fish all came from the same source so I could have been breeding brothers and sisters. I am now very careful to breed fish from different sources and have not had the same problem again.