[Jacob]

I saw one vaillanti scratch and act sick when they were first introduced, seemingly from being bullied, and when it was separated it got better but maybe tetra parasite guard had something to do with that. There never were any signs of disease on its skin then, just those actions that made it look sick.
After that, only the recent problem that was caused and cured with water conditions, though parasite guard also made the skin symptoms recede before I corrected the ph.
The licorice gouramies didn’t seem to scratch today, they were busy with live artemia so maybe they were too distracted to bother or maybe it really was a temporary sign of stress.
I was told with puffers, it’s normal that they scratch since they have no scales, vaillantis have scales but it’s been said many times that they’re sensitive to skin problems.
I don’t know if it’s the r/o just based on when the water conditions were wrong, it was dramatic how their behavior changed. They hid together and were inactive, in addition to all the strange skin problems. It seemed like it’s more than just the bacteria attacking them, they really didn’t like the wrong ph water, and when it was corrected they were pretty fast to return to normal.