Fish swimming eratically after new food

[mantisfan101]

I gave one of my apistos some tetramin flakes since I always use it for my other fish with no harm since I can’t keep feeding it only bbs. Well one of my males tried it and he froze, twitched, and jerked erratically around the tank multiple times. This is the first I’ve seen this happen; he seems fine now but what was this and would it kill him? Is it like how we react when we taste something bitter or different?

 

[The Snark]

Fish will swim erratically for a lot of reasons. The probable place to start is that food. Is there any chance it is contaminated? Old? Off in any way? One thing that comes to mind is certain molds are highly irritating, creating a burning sensation in human mouths, and possibly in fish.

 

[basin79]

I gave one of my apistos some tetramin flakes since I always use it for my other fish with no harm since I can’t keep feeding it only bbs. Well one of my males tried it and he froze, twitched, and jerked erratically around the tank multiple times. This is the first I’ve seen this happen; he seems fine now but what was this and would it kill him? Is it like how we react when we taste something bitter or different?

I've seen piranha do similar during/after feeding. It appears to be excitement in them although I'm unsure if it's the same.

 

[The Snark]

Just a fishy reaction to a fish equivalent of an aged Danish Bleu?

 

[The Snark]

Come to think of it, what you described sounds a lot like the frenzy sharks sometimes exhibit after getting a bite of something.

 

[basin79]

Come to think of it, what you described sounds a lot like the frenzy sharks sometimes exhibit after getting a bite of something.

Exactly. The excitement of feeding.

 

[mantisfan101]

Fish will swim erratically for a lot of reasons. The probable place to start is that food. Is there any chance it is contaminated? Old? Off in any way? One thing that comes to mind is certain molds are highly irritating, creating a burning sensation in human mouths, and possibly in fish.

It wasn’t contaminated; I’ve used that exact same canister of food for my ither fish multiple times. I’ve fed new fish that I just got with it with no adverse reactions. Perhaps it was just because it was new; I’ve only feed my apistos nothing but baby brine shrimp ever since I got them since they seem to prefer live food.

 

[Polenth]

I'd go with it being a reaction to new food. It can take time for them to get used to new things, especially if it's prepared food and they've only had fresh before.

 

[velvetundergrowth]

I had a similar thing happen with Tetradon nigriviridis after switching from frozen mussel meat to ramshorn snails. I thought I'd poisoned the poor fish with tainted snails a he/she began swimming in strange patterns and hanging at a weird angle in the water, but it seemed to be just a weird reaction to the new food and the puffer went back to normal soon after.
Then again, I've never kept apistos and I'm far from an expert on fish so I could be wrong. Has the strange behavior persisted or was it just a momentary thing?

 

[mantisfan101]

I had a similar thing happen with Tetradon nigriviridis after switching from frozen mussel meat to ramshorn snails. I thought I'd poisoned the poor fish with tainted snails a he/she began swimming in strange patterns and hanging at a weird angle in the water, but it seemed to be just a weird reaction to the new food and the puffer went back to normal soon after.
Then again, I've never kept apistos and I'm far from an expert on fish so I could be wrong. Has the strange behavior persisted or was it just a momentary thing?

It lasted like 5 seconds.

 

[moricollins]

I just gave my apistogrammas regular flake fishfood, never experienced anything like this.

 

[mantisfan101]

Update- one of them began eating it and I’ve since tried fasting them a bit from bbs and feeding them exclusively flakes. Now they've taken to it and are on a steady diet of half flakes and half bbs.