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Hi there, along with an outbreak of WS our Rainbows are acting weird. They have all of a sudden started swimming straight into the discharge from the spray wand of the eheim filter. Swimming upstream as it were. They are at it almost constantly. Has anyone experienced this before?
Also the two that have WS are swimming in almost non-stop circles.
Weird.

55G -5x Bosemani, 3x Emerald Cory,3x Red Rainbow, 3x Turquoise Rainbow. 20G-Empty. 10G -4x Danio 3x Cory Fry 1 Gold Mystery Snail. 10G- 1x CAE, 2x Tetra 1x ADF

How big is the tank, water parameters, how often do you do the WC's. Is it heavily planted?

As for the swimming upstream, I have had rainbows for 2 years now and have 5 Bosemani's currently. They will swim "upstream" into the output of both my HOB and my power head. It is possible that they have been doing this all along and you just now noticed it. If they are doing this 90% of the time or more, it is possible that your tank needs more water flow. If all you have is a spray bar, I don't think that that will give you enough water flow, for the Bosemani's. You may need to get a Power head in order to increase the water flow.

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What was the active ingredient in the WS medication you were using? I've seen some hyperactivity in fish dosed with copper medication.

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Hi there, I modified my setup so that the eheim spray bar is across the end of the tank. The current is strong enough to push the little guys backwards across the tank.... The only other thing it could be is that I rotated the spray so that it is gently breaking the surface for aeration.

55G -5x Bosemani, 3x Emerald Cory,3x Red Rainbow, 3x Turquoise Rainbow. 20G-Empty. 10G -4x Danio 3x Cory Fry 1 Gold Mystery Snail. 10G- 1x CAE, 2x Tetra 1x ADF

My rainbows, (and I have quite a few ,lol) have always enjoyed swimming in current, in fact I set spraybars at a 45 degree angle to let them, they are so streamlined they never get tired, they even sleep that way through the night. Think of it as their version of a hamster wheel, its not a problem. Ive also noticed that they do it in certain species if the ph starts to drop, which is logical. Many rainbows exist in both lake and river systems, so it follows that if things are a little acidic or a little too warm you'd wanna go upstream. They like ph around 7 and high oxygenation, its normal for them to sit in flow.

These guys are like greyhounds, they need the exercise, and they never break into racing speed if your tank isnt more than 4 feet long.

Males in large aquaria will do tournament sparring when two equally matched males will swim side by side shimmying and nipping, but they only do that regularly in a large tanks, the speed of those tournements must be damn near 15 mph, so obviously given a lap of a large tank takes a few seconds, it does interrupt their courtship display by having to turn. Of course given the average tanksize rainbows are kept in, most owners wont even see that display.

They are like the red arrows of the fish world. If youve ever seen wild footage in australian rivers , they bomb past in shoals, even against current at some speed. Cruising in flow is just a way for them to exercise those formidable muscles that in aquaria they rarely get to use. I regularly have whole fleets of them all swimming side by side in flow, its normal. You cant expect a fish this athletic to just cruise sedately like barbs and tetras, they are really fast, and using current is a way to keep themselves in trim, all the better for mating, fitness and longevity.

This isnt hyperactivity, its normal. They all do it periodically, with the exception of smaller weaker species like blue eyes and threadfins.