Mbuna skittish

[Joshuakahan]

For some reason all of my Mbuna suddenly became skittish yesterday. It started around 2pm and now every time I get near the tank they scatter and hide.
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
>5 nitrate
Ph 7.8
Nothing has changed
Any ideas?

 

[Joshuakahan]

Milingu
DJRansome
Sinister-Kisses
A201

 

[A201]

Turn the lights off for a day or too. See if that calms them down.

 

[Joshuakahan]

Turn the lights off for a day or too. See if that calms them down.

Thanks, I just started a 50% WC to be safe, but I’ll turn out the lights for a bit after I’m done

 

[Joshuakahan]

Oh ya, one of them just spit babies around the same time the skittishness started but I don’t see how that would cause this.

 

[DJRansome]

Well the mom is always skittish before she spits, and the rest should be after the babies.

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

Hmm hard to say, seems like maybe something gave them a good spook unexpectedly and they're in "flight mode" because of it. I'd move slowly around the tank for the next couple of days and see if they calm down. I've only ever had one mbuna tank that I'd call skittish in any way, but they were skittish ALL THE TIME from wee little fry to adults, for some damn reason; not friendly like usual mbuna set ups and then skittish out of the blue.

 

[Joshuakahan]

Well the mom is always skittish before she spits, and the rest should be after the babies.

Interesting, I wonder if maybe the holding females skittishness was causing the others to become skittish too

 

[Joshuakahan]

Hmm hard to say, seems like maybe something gave them a good spook unexpectedly and they're in "flight mode" because of it. I'd move slowly around the tank for the next couple of days and see if they calm down. I've only ever had one mbuna tank that I'd call skittish in any way, but they were skittish ALL THE TIME from wee little fry to adults, for some damn reason; not friendly like usual mbuna set ups and then skittish out of the blue.

The only thing I can think of is my pond is directly across from the mbuna tank about 5 feet away and I was experimenting with different lighting on the pond.

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

Ahh that could do it. I recently was playing with the lighting on one of my tanks - with my adult marbled fenestratus, not mbuna - and he was skittish as hell for a couple days afterwards. Normally a super friendly fish. He's back to normal now.