FishCentric

I tried a few more things with varying degrees of success. What seems to have worked the best is I took a patterned piece of gray fabric and placed it on the outside of the tank on the side they mostly surfed in order to block any light that was coming in. That seems to have really helped, and they now will maybe surf for a little bit in the morning when the lights first come on, but then will usually chill out and swim normally after a short while. It’s interesting because I had done this before but used a solid black piece of cardboard to block out the light, but yet had no success. It seems like the gray “linen patterned” fabric seems to have done the trick though. Not ideal aesthetically, but it’s on the side of the tank that faces the adjacent wall so you can’t even see it thankfully. Fingers crossed this fixes it! I really didn’t want to trade them in, they’re beautiful fish!

Thanks @DaveO! Thats an interesting idea. You don’t think that adding 10 more fish would overstock the tank? It’s only a 20 gallon long and I feel like I may be pushing it as is with the current stock.

Haha thanks @NOLANANO, I appreciate it! And that is really good advice. Thank you! To be honest I’ve been mulling over the idea of trading them in for something else. Posting here was kind of my final straw because like you said, it sure is stressing me out. We get in this hobby to enjoy the tank and watch the fish interact and go about doing their thing. It’s really hard to do that when you’re sitting and fretting about things the whole time! I’ve already played around with lighting and reflections, but I guess I’ll mess around a bit more. If things don’t change I might just take your advice and see about trading them in.

Hi @xXInkedPhoenixX and @Tanked, thanks for your reply! The pH stays pretty consistent at 7.4, and I’ve had the rasboras for 4 months now. I’ve treated them and the other fish in the tank for parasites and disease, so I don’t think that’s the issue. All the other fish in the tank look and act completely normal. I also have a small sponge filter running in addition to my HOB filter but they seem to ignore the bubbles from that. I’ve even tried completely baffling the HOB filter outlet so that it produces no current or waves and still no luck. As for open swimming space, they have quite a lot. The tall plants are restricted to the back of the tank and the front 2/3 of the tank is pretty open with lots of space to swim back and forth. When they are glass surfing, they stay in any of the 4 corners and just go up and down frantically. I’ve noticed that when the tank and the room they are in are completely dark they eventually stop and go to their “parking spots” as I call it. I’ve played around with the ambient room lighting as well. I’ve tried turning off/on all the room lights, closing/opening the blinds, etc. and it still doesn’t really make a difference. They might calm down for a few minutes but then go right back to it. My LFS thought that maybe if they were wild caught, they just have zero desire to be constrained in a tank and are looking to get out. But when I purchased them, they were swimming happily around the tank at the store.

Hi there! I have 11 lambchop rasboras in a 20 gallon long that have been glass surfing incessantly since I brought them home over 4 months ago. And I mean nonstop! All day, every day! For 4 months! They might chill out for a little bit, but then they go right back to it. My tank is very well planted, fully cycled, and has plenty of hiding spots and plants to break line of sight, etc. I’ve tried everything under the sun to get them to stop, but nothing seems to work. I’ve blocked the corners they surf with plants, dimmed the lighting, increased the lighting, put black cardboard against the sides and back of the tank to block reflection, decreased/increased the filter flow, added dither fish, treated them for any diseases or parasites… I’ve tried literally everything I can think of and that was recommended by my LFS. Nothing works. In the tank I have the 11 rasboras, a pair of Bolivian rams, 7 cardinal tetras, and 4 otos. The rams are a mating pair but could care less of their tank mates so aggression isn’t an issue. Tank is fully cycled, well filtered and I regularly test the water to make sure everything is stable. Please help!